Winners of the state ranking badminton meet (from left) Tanmoyee Nandy, Sandipan Bannerjee, Arup Baidya and Soumi Dutta at the Ordnance Club Saturday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta, May 17: Realising its inability to run the game swiftly in the state, the West Bengal Badminton Association (WBBA) is set to make an exception in order to turn things around.

Come July, and for the first time a non-affiliated unit will be granted “special permission” to organise the state senior championship. This body — Badminton Players’ Association (BPA) — was launched in 2001 to pull the game out of distress caused by decades of infighting and factionalism within the WBBA.

The WBBA officials would not accept in as many words that their incapability in hosting a tournament of such scale has prompted this decision, but they don’t have anything significantly different to say either.

“It’s not that we can’t organise this tournament, but we welcome the BPA’s initiative in this regard. Our office bearers will meet soon to clear this and let them go ahead with the tournament. It’s good for the game after all,” said Rathin Shome, the WBBA assistant secretary, Saturday.

It’s not that the BPA will organise a state-level tournament for the first time. It had been granted special permission for the state junior championship in 2001. It has already organised three state ranking tournaments — the third of which got over at Ordnance Club Saturday.

“We are not confronting the WBBA as we have had enough of conflict over badminton in Bengal. We are just trying to assist aspiring players. And, perhaps realising their helplessness, the WBBA is encouraging our effort,” said a BPA official.

The BPA, in fact, has some ambitious projects. It is planning a national ranking tournament in the city towards the end of this year and a budget of Rs 10 lakh will be required for this. “We have been assured of Rs 4 lakh, and are hopeful of garnering the remaining amount,” said a person close to the BPA said.

Arup, Tanmoyee best

Arup Baidya and Tanmoyee Nandy won the men’s and women’s singles titles, respectively, in the BPA-organised state ranking meet at Ordnance Club. While Arup overcame some early hesitation to rout Harish Chandra 15-5, 15-3, Tanmoyee dropped a game before taming Barnali Raha 11-2, 6-11, 11-0.

FINAL RESULTS

Men’s singles:Arup Baidya bt Harish Chandra 15-5, 15-3. Women’s singles: Tanmoyee Nandy bt Barnali Raha 11-2, 6-11, 11-0. Sub-jr boys’ singles: Sandipan Banerjee bt Sourav Chakraborty 15-1, 15-4. Sub-jr girls’ singles: Soumi Dutta bt Muktabindu Basu 13-10, 11-8. Amateur doubles: Manoj Modi/Siddharth Jhunjhunwala bt Surat Chowrasia/S. Kejriwal 15-8, 15-11.