Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal on Wednesday criticised badminton's world governing body BWF for a crammed schedule and said there are way too many tournaments taking place in a calendar year.
"The scheduling from BWF is just not right. The calendar is too crammed and it's not possible for top players to win everything.
"It's not good. I can't understand how to manage the workload. I will have to sit down with Gopichand sir and discuss how to manage my fitness and which tournaments to participate in," the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist said at the press conference to launch the 3rd season of Vodafone Premier Badminton league.
She even made a novel suggestion about how to make badminton more exciting.
"If I was the president of BWF, I would have, instead of the current system of so many Super Series events, just 4-5 major tournaments, like Grand Slams in tennis. Right now, the load on players is too much," he elaborated.
The 27-year-old explained on how the stuffed calendar of events is affecting players.
"There are so many tournaments. PBl also makes it heavy (workload). I think it would be even tougher next year with the Commonwealth games and the Asian games set to take place.
"When you play big tournaments like World Championship, half your energy is spent there. And then, if you have another tournament, equally big, taking place less than two weeks later, you are challenging yourself again mentally and physically. That is not easy.
"So, there should be a lot more time given to players for practicing and to make sure that if they are carrying any injuries that can be sorted out. Right now, there is no time for that. That's why we have seen that the players who were doing well last year, are not at their best this year," this year's national champion explained.
The other big names present on the occasion were reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin, former men's world No 1 Son Wan Ho, current world No 5 Sung Ji Hyun, upcoming Indian talent Ajay Jayaram and Indian national men's champion and world No 10 HS Prannoy.
Saina received wholehearted support on the issue of bad scheduling from Marin. She seconded Saina's views, saying: "I completely agree with what Saina said about the crammed schedule and the calendar for the next year is really crazy. After PBl, we have three tournaments in a row. Apart from that, we will have many other tournaments in 2018. So, it's going to be really tough for all the players. let's see how it goes."
When questioned on this same issue, Prannoy also accepted that workload is heavy but also claimed that he and other players are used to it.
"PBl is always great fun. It takes place towards the end of the year and is tough mentally and physically. But at the same time, we have got used to it in the last 4-5 years. Our body and mind really knows how things work and how we need to manage ourselves.
"So, I think it's not going to be tough and the next series after PBl is going to be crucial for us. There is no time to take rest or have a vacation. We just need to be on the job every day," the 25-year old asserted.
Another notable presence at the event was Tian Houwei, the first Chinese to take part in the PBl. He expressed excitement to be playing at the event and described it as a good preparation for other major events.
"I am very excited to be playing in PBl. It's good to play alongside so many international players. This is good practice to prepare for other big tournaments," the World No 16 remarked.
The new season of PBl gets underway on 23rd December and would go on till 14th January. Eight teams would be part of the event, up from six last season with two new team - North Eastern Warriors and Ahmedabad Smash Masters - being brought in.
The matches would be played in five cities - Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai, lucknow and Hyderabad.
Other big names that would be taking part in the tournament include world champion Viktor Axelsen and former World No 1 Tai Tzu Ying.