ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will be hosting the International Series Badminton Tournament from Tuesday at the Liaquat Gymnasium of the Pakistan Sports Complex here after a gap of eight years.

Addressing a press conference on Monday at the Pakistan Sports Complex, Wajid Ali Chaudhry, honorary secretary of the Pakistan Badminton Federation (PBF), said he was glad that the issue between the two parallel badminton federations was over and Pakistan was finally hosting an international badminton tournament.

He said players from Malaysia, New Zealand, Canada, Iraq, Nepal, Syria and Pakistan will take part in the tournament.

“We are also trying to host Asia’s biggest badminton event that will be held in March or April next year. For that we are in talks with Badminton World Federation and Badminton Asia,” he said.

Wajid said Rs3.5 million were required to host the tournament and he was grateful to Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) director general Dr Akthar Nawaz Ganjera for making this tournament happen.

He said the tournament carries a cash prize of US$6,000. The events to be contested in the tournament include men’s singles and doubles, ladies singles, women doubles and mixed doubles.

Replying to a question, he said Nadeem Khan and Sajid Hussain were qualified coaches and the news regarding them being unqualified was baseless.

It needs to be mentioned here that Nadeem and Sajid who were appointed as national coach and PBF technical committee head respectively had failed to qualify in the BWF level-II coaching course.

Wajid said they had passed a course, held in Lahore, therefore, they were appointed on the said positions.

Published in Dawn October 18th, 2016