India’s chief national coach P. Gopi Chand has taken issue with the handling of shuttler A.S.S. Siril Varma’s over-age issue.
Siril was found to be older than the permitted age after medical tests in a private hospital in Delhi, and debarred from taking part in the Asian junior championship which got underway in Kudus (Indonesia) on Wednesday.
Gopi told The Hindu on Thursday that Siril had two age verifications in 2009 and in 2013, and no discrepancies were found on this front.
“I spoke to Siril’s parents and cross-checked to be clear on this issue. They were emphatic that the age certificate provided by him was completely genuine,” Gopi said.
“It is a strange way of handling such a critical subject. I would love for someone to get to the bottom of this and find out what and where went wrong. The fact that Siril, who was top-seeded in the Asian juniors, had to subsequently miss the event as the tests were conducted just a day before he was scheduled to leave, was disturbing,” the former all-England champion said.
“What is ironical is that after one hospital in Delhi did the tests and allegedly found Siril to be overaged, the AIIMS in Delhi conducted similar tests again on the same player. To be on the safe side after the X-ray reports suggested he was not over-aged, they also conducted an MRI scan which testified that Siril is aged between 16 and 18 years,” he said.
“I sincerely appeal to the authorities to see that all these tests are done well in advance so that affected players have reasonable time to contest and prove their credentials in future,” Gopi said.
