'We hope for the players' support': BWF on India Open in Delhi pollution

NEW DELHI: The ongoing BWF World Championships in New Delhi have, by Thomas Lund's own admission, silenced most of the early criticism about venue readiness. But the challenge will return with the India Open next year, scheduled to be played in the capital in February, despite pollution concerns. Denmark's Anders Antonsen has been one of the vocal critics of the tournament being held at that time of the year. The BWF secretary general Thomas Lund, however, asked the players to support the current calendar while candidly admitting that logistically, it hasn't been easy to move the Super 750 tournament out of the first quarter. The former player also shed light on the 15-point format that will come into effect from January 4, 2027, replacing the current and long-standing 21-point format. He also spoke about the evolution of the sport, embracing technology such as electronic line-calling on all courts and the transition to synthetic shuttlecocks. ExcerptsDo you think the scheduling of the India Open risks running into the same issue in another edition, given that Delhi's pollution tends to peak around that time of year? There's obviously a lot of logistical consideration in these things, and we've been in close dialogue on the whole calendar. Coming into 2027, it's quite a short space to work with, and for now, it hasn't been possible to move it entirely out of the first quarter. It is documented that pollution eases further into January and February, so that's the data we'll keep looking at, and conditions should be improved compared to where we were this year. Even coming into Delhi now, it's noticeably better than earlier in the year. Due to domestic scheduling factors, it hasn't been possible to move the tournament around the calendar entirely, but it's something we continue to look at, and the scheduling has been improved and will keep improving in the years ahead. You can also see we've started the wider tour season slightly later, into January, partly for player health, giving them a longer break over Christmas and New Year rather than starting straight after the World Tour Finals. I think that has helped, even if some players may not feel it's enough. We hope for players' understanding that not everything can be reset all at once, but we hope for their continued support. What were the limitations of the 21-point format that you thought about, considered, and weighed into before the 15-point format was agreed upon? That's obviously something that has been under long and thorough discussion among all our community stakeholders. I could bring up a lot of different elements, but I'd highlight the feedback we've received for years from players: they're becoming better and better, and the depth in the world rankings means it's full-on from the first round, even for the best players. That means the physical load on players becomes bigger and bigger. We want to help players do what they do best, play every week, or as much as they can, without getting injured. That's the balance we're trying to strike by putting the load slightly down. It's not a revolution, it's an evolution. When we changed from 15 points, where you had to serve to win a point, matches became much shorter. That's crept back up considerably over the years, so we're tweaking the point system to bring the load on players back down and safeguard their health. There are many other things too, such as scheduling, how tournaments are conducted and the number of days, but that's the complexity of it. Has there been any challenge to the change in format? Any decision you take, people will have a different perception. We're changing six points per game in a format that has become longer and longer over the years. I get it. This is a change for players. They're so good, they'll adapt in a split second, even if they say it's hard at first. Coaches are a little worried because something is changing. I get that too. I don't see big disadvantages beyond an adaptation period and maybe some worry about a slight change in balance. Our statistical simulation analysis suggests this will come out with the same champions, the same people winning, but maybe with a slight twist towards more close matches. I think that's an advantage for badminton. We're here to evolve the sport for the benefit of players. What if the games go on for long even then? I don't have a crystal ball, but we've made tests, and of course there will be players playing an hour under the new system, the same way today we have players playing 21 points who finish in half an hour, and others who go past the 100-minute mark. It comes down to statistical averages: draws produce different opponents, sometimes an easy run, sometimes a string of tough ones back-to-back. That's the nature of any sport. We're looking at the big sports, asking how we reach the level of cricket in a country like India, or football elsewhere, more than we're looking at who might be trying to replicate what we do. Thomas Lund | BWF general secretary How much has the growth of sports like padel and pickleball played a role in this change? Not really. Lots of sports around us are doing fantastic things. Some emerging sports are small commercially, some are growing and participation-based. We live in a world where young people look for new things; some trends come up and fall away, some grow. We're focused on our own product and our own stakeholders, markets where badminton is mainstream, or more mainstream than others. We're looking at the big sports, asking how we reach the level of cricket in a country like India, or football elsewhere, more than we're looking at who might be trying to replicate what we do. We've learned things from other sports and other industries, particularly on technology and on reaching a younger generation that's more engaged with gaming than traditional sport. There are different trends in India than in the American or other Asian markets, so it's a complex picture. Players have asked for electronic line-calling on all courts. What do you make of it? We have a lot of technology projects in the pipeline and have had for a while. Very hard work is being done on these things. I'm not quite ready today to announce all of it; I'll do that at a later time. But yes, I can confirm we have interesting new developments coming, both for the game and for spectators, and in particular for players and umpires. We have a distance still to travel next to the "cricket religion" in this country, but we're getting there. We have to aim high. Thomas Lund | BWF Secretary Could you talk about the importance of the Indian market to the future of badminton? It's not a coincidence we're here with one of our biggest events on the calendar. India, as both a top-performing nation and a top market, has shown real depth. You've had individual stars, but also a Thomas Cup win not too many years ago that showed the breadth of what India has been doing at the top performance level. Our statistics show India is probably the fastest-growing badminton market, alongside having one of the biggest populations in the world. We have a distance still to travel next to the "cricket religion" in this country, but we're getting there. We have to aim high. We're midway through the World Championships. Has New Delhi lived up to expectations as a host, in a broader sense? We've had a team here for a long time working hand-in-hand with the Badminton Association of India (BAI) and the other stakeholders. I'm impressed with what's been established at this venue. There were some criticisms earlier in the year, but the amount that's been done in a short time, some of the details have been well handled, and I thank BAI, the government and everyone behind it. Any plans to introduce prize money at the World Championships? Right now, that's not on the table. We're focused on a longer-term plan. We're revamping tournament concepts, adding rest days at Super 1000 and major events to safeguard athlete health, and investing in new technology, without me being able to detail exactly what that costs yet. One of our biggest commercial priorities has actually been broadcast, showing more matches from Super 1000 events, with more players, so you get more Indian matches on TV, more German players, more American players, more Malaysian players, rather than us having to pick and choose. That takes investment too, and that's where our focus has been, because it gives more players more exposure and their own commercial upside. We could just hand players a fixed sum, but we'd rather build something sustainable, supporting players' own revenue generation while also building the on-court framework for them to succeed commercially. We've pushed World Tour prize money up nearly every week rather than concentrating it in one tournament three years out of four, which I think is the more holistic approach. New Delhi: A player serves during a badminton match at the BWF World Championships, IGI Stadium in New Delhi. BWF secretary general Thomas Lund says the federation expects synthetic-feather shuttlecocks to become an increasingly important part of badminton, including at higher levels of competition, he also said, �Probably not tomorrow, but within the foreseeable future, not in months, but probably in years. But still, we�re getting there�. (PTI Photo/Karma Bhutia)(PTI08_20_2026_000142A) Shuttlecock availability has been an issue. What experimentation is going on, and is there any move toward synthetic materials? That's a bigger question than it might first appear. There's no shortage of good shuttlecocks for this World Championships, plenty of supply at the top level. But over the last 30-40 years, and more acutely with a bird flu outbreak in recent years, the supply chain has had some volatility, with prices moving up and down. Remember, the BWF doesn't supply shuttlecocks itself. That's the equipment suppliers' business. About ten years ago, we started a conversation, jointly with equipment suppliers, targeted more at the broader participation market, where the socioeconomic impact of rising prices is bigger, clubs, individual players, anyone buying shuttlecocks for casual play. That led to us opening the door in our regulations to a synthetic feather option alongside natural feather, removing wording that restricted it to natural feather only. Manufacturers have worked hard to get a synthetic product close to the standard we need at this level, which is difficult: you fix one property and find you've taken a step back on another. COVID disrupted that development process for a few years too. We're supportive of getting to a place where both natural and synthetic feather options exist in the market, though anything played at a World Championships needs to meet very high standards. Some products are getting impressively close. If synthetic feather can scale to a much bigger volume, it should also help dampen price increases, though shuttlecocks aren't immune to the same inflationary pressures as everything else right now, oil, logistics and labour. It's not simply a supply-chain headline; there's a natural cost evaluation happening too, the same as at the supermarket. Our mission is to keep the sport as accessible as possible, so we want to work with suppliers to make products as good and as affordable as we can, while recognising they need to earn something on it too. We're not in full control, but we work closely with the market stakeholders on it. [Image text:] LD MPIONSHIPS EW ELHI 026 AAN