National badminton coach Vimal Kumar blamed the country's top shuttlers for not taking advantage of the international exposure and said most of them lacked "real drive".
"Most of the players are not showing real drive or matching the performance they were putting up a year, or year-and-a-half ago," Vimal Kumar said.
"It's not due to lack of exposure. They have been getting continuous exposure... playing international tournaments. Of late, we have not been very happy with the performance of the players," he said without naming anyone in particular.
Defending the Badminton Association of India's decision to sponsor upcoming talent Anup Sridhar for the Singapore Open starting next week, Vimal said "he is the most promising player among the young brigade."
In the last six months, the 20-year-old has beaten top players like Nikhil Kanetkar, Sachin Ratti, Arvind Bhat and J B S Vidhyadhar, he pointed out.
"The view of the selection committee is that we need some back-up players and we need to give them exposure," Vimal said, noting that tournaments like Singapore Open were basically "exposure events".
Vimal said the decision to sponsor Sridhar was taken a month ago.
However, Sridhar, ranked 458 in the world, is wait-listed in the Singapore Open starting on August 18 and is still waiting to know whether he will find a place even in the qualifiers.
On BAI not sponsoring India's top doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien for the Singapore Open, Vimal shot back, "They have been playing since 2000. They are not fit to play at this level of competition".
Meanwhile, besides Sridhar, national doubles champions Markose Bristow and Rupesh Kumar, sponsored by BAI, have also failed to get an entry into the qualifiers.
National champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta, ranked 68 in the world, got into the main draw on Monday, Vimal said.
BAI is also sponsoring Aparna Popat, ranked 26 in the world, and B R Meenakshi, ranked 78.
BAI has a mandate to sponsor only four men and two women shuttlers, Kumar said, adding other Indian shuttlers were taking part in the Open at their own expense.
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