Birds in badminton always meant duck or goose feathers. The avian variety, pigeons, have wanted in on the Badminton World Championships too, and remain a challenge even as organisers try to keep them away from the Indira Gandhi stadium.
The Delhi Badminton World Championships have a tightrope walk ahead of them over the next nine days, as India tries to deliver a global event after a spray of criticism at January’s India Open.
Pigeon droppings on court mid-match had triggered a scandal at that Super 750 event. India swung into action ahead of the World’s, bringing out a capsicum-reinforced gel and applying it to the stadium roof to keep the hazardous birds at bay.
There’s a catch, though. The gel needs a certain temperature to hold its form, or it melts and drips onto the seats or the court below.
Delhi was cloudy and pleasant on Friday, and warmer on Saturday morning, with a high of 32 degrees. Keeping the gel stable means keeping the arena cooler, which means running the air conditioning harder. That, in turn, affects the drift on court. Players have reported dead, doldrum conditions on one day and windy ones on the next, as the A/C balances spectator comfort against the gel’s structural needs.
Bird droppings are no trifle, and had already interrupted matches at the India Open. But drift conditions can alter gameplans just as badly, blurring line calls, which is what has made this particular balancing act so delicate.
The World Championships begin on Monday, August 17, and top foreign players started arriving on Friday, with practice sessions scheduled through the weekend, when the logistics will be tested once more.
Indian efforts to find solutions have been appreciated. The gel-versus-air-conditioning problem, though, isn’t going away.