World champion badminton player told the story of bad experience in India, BAI said unfortunate

Japan’s former world champion and Olympic medalist Nojomi Okuhara recently shared her bad experience while traveling to India where she was cheated by a Delhi cab driver and had to wait for four hours for a hotel room in Cuttack, Odisha. .

Okuhara, 28, wrote on social media platform fansnet.jp that a cab driver harassed and defrauded her at the Delhi airport. He wrote that when he reached Cuttack on Monday for the Odisha Open, he was not provided official transport facility. He wrote that he had to wait for four hours to check-in at the hotel and could not get a bus or car even at 8 in the morning for the practice session.

Badminton Association of India (BAI) General Secretary Sanjay Mishra called it unfortunate and said that this will not happen in future. He defended the local organizing committee, saying that the experienced Japanese badminton player had not sent any email detailing the logistics (local travel and hotel) otherwise such a situation would not have happened. He said, “I can understand what Okuhara must have gone through but we did not receive any email from him regarding hotel or transportation.” This is a technical issue and happened due to lack of communication. We had no information.”

Mishra also said, “It is unfortunate but when I came to know, I spoke to the organizers and full assistance was provided.” She is a big player and is our guest. This type of incident will not happen in future.” Former world number one player Okuhara had won the Syed Meadi Super 300 tournament in Lucknow. She came to Delhi via Hong Kong on Sunday night. After this, a stranger kept his luggage on a trolley at Delhi airport. Then a private taxi driver charged them ten times more than Uber to take them to a nearby hotel.

Adventures in India Part 3 ft Nozomi Okuhara
I dont think after such experiences anyone would be willing to come back to India, harsh reality
I feel sorry on behalf of Indian Fans for all these the players have to go through 🙏 pic.twitter.com/luutwyE9dP

— Just Badminton (@BadmintonJust) December 10, 2023

Organizing secretary Nilin Kumar said he met Okuhara at the hotel and BAI joint secretary Prabhakar Rao was also there.

He said, “The players had sent requests for hotels on the BWF form but Okuhara did not send any such request.” That’s why the room was not booked for him. Players coming from the remaining 30 countries did not face any problem and if you do not stay in an official hotel, you do not get a shuttle bus. He said, “You get a shuttle bus only if you stay in an official hotel.” It is not possible for the organizers to transport players from hotels across the city.

Okuhara’s Indian friends, badminton players HS Prannoy and PV Sindhu, talked to local members and arranged a hotel for him. Pranay provided him a car to reach the practice.