Adding international flavour to domestic badminton tournaments may be a good way of providing much-needed exposure to young players, but top Indian shuttler Aparna Popat feels the decision to allow entry to foreign players could end up "hampering the motivation" of young talent.
"Allowing foreign players in domestic tournaments, which are also considered selection trial events, will hurt the interests of young players and hamper their motivation. The draw plays an important role and a bad draw would mar the prospects of young players," Popat said in Bangalore on Thursday.
The Badminton Association of India has decided to allow players from Malaysia, Thailand and
Singapore to participate in three prize-money tournaments - Syed Modi Memorial Senior Tournament, J R D Tata Memorial Senior Tournament and All India Senior Ranking Tournament scheduled between December 8 and 24.
The BAI's move is seen as an attempt to provide some international competition to Indian shuttlers but Aparna wondered whether South East Asian nations would allow Indians to compete in their domestic tournaments.
She, however, added that the decision has its positives in terms of enhancing the flavour of competition and could benefit youngsters if handled properly.
"But if one wants to be critical, then there are a lot of things to be critical of," she said.
Terming the decision as "harsh and unfair", Popat said while top Indian players would be able to meet the challenge of their overseas counterparts, it would be difficult for young and up-and-coming players given their inexperience.
"If there are six or more tournaments for seniors then allowing foreign players in some of them is okay," said Popat, who is currently training at the Sports Authority of India, South Centre campus, for the Athens Olympics.
But in a scenario where such tournaments are less in number, it would be unfair on young players because opportunities for them to come up would be fewer, she added.
Popat, who is the only Indian shuttler to get a direct entry into the Olympics, pointed out to the possibility of young players running into experienced foreign shuttlers in initial rounds itself, putting them in a disadvantageous position.
She argued that there should be some tournaments exclusively for Indians as, otherwise, one would not get a correct picture about where each one of them stands.