Jwala Gutta: Castigated badminton queen or unfortunate victim of her own doing

Jwala Gutta has been embroiled in another controversy

A life ban for Indian badminton player Jwala Gutta has been recommended by the Badminton Association of India’s disciplinary committee.

The recommendation has been forwarded from the disciplinary committee to the president of the BAI who will take a final call on the matter. Jwala had already been served a showcause notice by the association for her improper conduct during the event.

The president is set to wait for a response from the player herself on the recommendation and she is likely to get seven days in which to send in her response.

Jwala had reportedly forced her team into not competing after she took offence to the fact that the Banga Beats had replaced Yun Hu, who had been carrying an injury, with Jan O Jorgensen, and was clear that she did not want the new player to feature in the tie against her team.

Her stance delayed the match by about 40 minutes with the main broadcaster close to cancelling the telecast of that match.

It’s the latest in a series of setbacks for the doubles specialist who has not been having a fine time of it the last couple of years. It can be argued though, that a fair share of the blame has to probably go to the shuttler herself.

A quite accomplished player

For the record, Jwala is a very accomplished badminton player; any player who has won the National Badminton Championships 13 times is by no means your average jobber.

That apart, she will be most remembered for her triumph at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where in partnership with Ashwini Ponnappa she created history by winning a first ever gold medal for India in women’s doubles. She also won silver in the mixed doubles with V.Diju.

The year 2010 was to prove to be a very successful year for Jwala as Ashwini and she, followed up their gold medal run at the Commonwealth by claiming the bronze medal at the BWF World Championships, another first.

They could not quite reproduce that magic at last year’s London Olympics as they lost in the very first round to the Japanese pairing of Mizuki Fuji and Reika.

Since the conclusion of that little period where she enjoyed much success, results have not been at the same level. Her rankings have seen a huge drop in that period from a career-best rank of 13 to lying at number 237 currently. In the mixed doubles, her ranking has plummeted from as high as 6th to 126th.

2013 has been particularly harsh; injuries aside, she has lost all three doubles matches alongside Prajakta Sawant that she’s taken part in on tour and has not gotten past the first round. In the mixed doubles along with Diju, she has split her four matches – winning two, losing the other couple.

The last event that Jwala took part in was the Singapore Open where she lost in the first round of the doubles.