Bhagat complains against India coach Khanna over deleted social media post

Pramod Bhagat

NEW DELHI: India’s leading para shuttler Pramod Bhagat has lodged a formal complaint with the sports authorities against national coach Gaurav Khanna over a now-deleted social media post predicting the country’s para badminton medal tally ahead of the finals at the recently-concluded Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.In an email dated Oct 27, sent at 8.07pm (a copy of which is with TOI) to the sports ministry officials, Sports Authority of India's (SAI) ED Teams division, DG SAI and Badminton Association of India (BAI) president and secretary general, Bhagat sought a formal inquiry and disciplinary action against Khanna.According to the screenshot of the post, available with TOI, Khanna allegedly made the prediction on Oct 22, a day before the finals on Oct 23.

He forecast 16 medals for India — two gold, six silver and eight bronze — and identified Nitesh Kumar and Naveen Sivakumar as gold medallists in men’s singles SL3 and SL4, respectively. He predicted a silver for Bhagat in SL3.

India eventually won 16 medals, but finished with three gold, five silver and eight bronze. Nitesh defeated compatriot Bhagat in the men’s singles SL3 final, while debutant Naveen clinched the SL4 gold.

Thulasimathi Murugesan and Manasi Joshi won gold in women’s doubles SL3-SU5, contrary to the silver predicted for them.Khanna deleted the post after the finals, but Bhagat had saved a screenshot.

The saved screenshot

In his complaint, Bhagat said he learnt about the post shortly before his final from athletes and officials of other countries.“This was extremely embarrassing and put me under immense pressure, which eventually affected my performance in the finals,” he wrote.

Calling the post “deeply discouraging and detrimental to the morale of our contingent”, Bhagat said Indian athletes were competing in seven finals and striving to bring further laurels to the country.He added that the incident had placed Indian athletes “in an untenable position on an international platform” and undermined the national team’s unity and dignity.

Bhagat urged BAI to “take serious cognizance of this matter, conduct a formal inquiry, and initiate appropriate disciplinary action under the relevant rules and code of conduct”.The complaint raises questions about the appropriateness of publicly predicting medal outcomes while an international competition is underway. However, the prediction alone does not establish match-fixing or other wrongdoing, and no evidence of such conduct has been provided.“Public commentary that demoralises athletes during an ongoing international championship must not go unaddressed,” Bhagat wrote, adding that athletes deserved “uncompromised support and encouragement”.