The government’s decision to impose a mandatory 14-day quarantine on foreigners from 40 countries could be the biggest deal-breaker for the Malaysia Open on May 25-30.
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To date, all parties involved, namely the BA of Malaysia (BAM) and the Badminton World Federation (BWF), have yet to reach a conclusion on whether the Super 750 event should go on or not.
BAM secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh said discussions are still ongoing with the BWF and other relevant authorities on how to manage the new government regulation.
“Discussions are still ongoing with all the relevant parties.
“We have to see how we can go about the event with the new 14-day quarantine period. A decision will be made soon,” he told Timesport.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many international tournaments have either been postponed or cancelled since the All England last year.
This year alone, several events, including those offering Olympic qualifying points like the German Open, India Open and the Asia Championships, became casualties of the coronavirus.
The biggest question is how will players, who still have a chance to reach the Tokyo Olympics in July, collect enough ranking points to make the cut if the Malaysia Open is also called off?
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As it is, many top shuttlers are already crying foul and have called on the BWF to come up with a fair solution to the Olympic qualifying process.
For the record, the Malaysia Open is the second last event to offer Olympic qualifying points before the Singapore Open on June 1-6.
To make matters worse, Malaysia has banned all flights to and from India, leaving Indian shuttlers in a dilemma.
The BA of India (BAI) have suggested having their players fly in via Doha but Qatar, alongside other top badminton nations like Denmark, Japan and China, is on the list of 40 countries that must go through the 14-day quarantine upon arrival in Malaysia.
This means players from the 40 listed countries who want to compete in the Malaysia Open must arrive in Kuala Lumpur next week.
And as Malaysia continues to record high numbers of new Covid-19 cases daily, it remains to be seen if players and officials will feel safe travelling here in this period of time.-NST