IBL auction row: Saina Nehwal wants local players to get better wages than foreigners
Former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat is unhappy after being bought at his base price of USD 15,000 but Saina Nehwal defends the auction procedure saying Indian Badminton League must help home-spun players first.
Even as former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat slammed the auction process of the inaugural Indian Badminton League (IBL) where he was bought for only USD 15,000 by Hyderabad Hotshots, Saina Nehwal defended the procedure. (Jwala Gutta slams Saina Nehwal for comments on Taufik Hidayat)
"This is an Indian badminton league and is meant to benefit local players of this country. So, it's good if a local player has been bought at a higher price," Nehwal said on Tuesday after the Hotshots beat Pune Pistons 4-1, a day earlier.
Though the world no. 4 was happy with the victory, she expressed reservations about some of the line-calls in her match against Juliane Schenk. "In the second game, I felt many points went against me. Many line judgements were ruled incorrectly."
"I know some human error is expected, but it was not a matter of just one or two wrong calls but five or six. It's the umpire's duty to overrule such calls but that didn't happen even once," she said.