Malaysia Open cancelled for second time in row

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28  -- The Malaysia Open badminton championship has been called off for a second consecutive time, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) confirmed today.

Without citing any reasons, the world badminton governing body announced the cancellation of the World Tour Super 750 tournament together with the announcement of the revamped 2022 calendar on its official website, www.bwfbadminton.com.

The 2021 Malaysia Open was initially slated to be held at the Axiata Arena from May 25-30 before being postponed indefinitely in early May due to the surge in COVID-19 cases at that time.

The 2020 edition, scheduled from March 31 to April 5 last year, was also cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO).

Meanwhile, the BWF have announced that next year’s Malaysia Open is scheduled to be held from June 28-July 3, followed by the Malaysia Masters from July 5-10.

According to the revamped 2022 calendar, the new season will start in India with three back-to-back tournaments - the India Open (Jan 11-16), Syed Modi India International (Jan 18-23) and Odisha Open (Jan 25-30) - while the prestigious All England will be held from May 16-20.

The 2022 Thomas and Uber Cup Finals are set to be held in Bangkok, Thailand from May 8-15; the World Championships in Japan from Aug 21-28; and the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals in Guangzhou, China from Dec 14-18.

BWF secretary-general Thomas Lund said that next year’s calendar has a number of cluster tournaments planned to mitigate the complexity surrounding cross-border travel.

“It is likely that tournaments in 2022 will have BWF safety provisions around them. However, the BWF hope to gradually transition to conducting tournaments with fewer COVID-19 restrictions in 2022 as we slowly return to normalcy, with less limitations on hosting international events,” he said.

-- BERNAMA