Saina Nehwal is India’s medal hope at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and will be facing some stiff competition from fellow shuttlers. But the London Olympic bronze medallist seems to have a battle on her hand, off the court, as Indian Olympic Association has sent out a strong message to the badminton star following her series of tweet, slamming the Commonwealth Games Federation for denying access to her father Harvir Singh Nehwal at the Gold Coast Games Village.

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The confusion regarding the eligibility of coaches and team officials accompanying the Indian athletes to Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast has resurfaced, with badminton ace Saina Nehwal’s father Harvir Singh being barred from the Games village.

The Commonwealth Games are starting from April 4 and on April 1, Saina expressed her happiness on the micro-blogging site Twitter when she shared a pic of herself with her family and wrote,

“Happy to b part of #CommonwealthGames2018 #GoldCoast #Australia”

Happy to b part of #CommonwealthGames2018 #GoldCoast #Australia 👍👍 pic.twitter.com/otLJudlBIU

— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) April 1, 2018

The former World No 1 took to Twitter to break the development.

“Surprise to see that when we started from India for commonwealth games 2018 my father was confirmed as the team official and I paid the whole amount for that but when we came to the games village … his name was cut from team official category .. and he can’t even stay with me ,” she tweeted.

Surprise to see that when we started from India for commonwealth games 2018 my father was confirmed as the team official and I paid the whole amount for that but when we came to the games village … his name was cut from team official category .. and he can’t even stay with me .

— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) April 2, 2018

The 28-year-old followed it with two more tweets, expressing anguish over the confusion regarding her father’s eligibility to accompany her.

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He can’t c my matches and he can’t enter the village nor he can meet me in anyway .. what kind of support is this ..@thecgf

— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) April 2, 2018

I wanted his support as I regularly take him for my competitions …but i didn’t understand why nobody informed me all this earlier .. that he can’t enter anywhere #CommonwealthGames2018

— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) April 2, 2018

Saina’s father Harvir Singh Nehwal and PV Sindhu’s mother Vijaya are among the 15 individuals who, despite being cleared to be part of the Indian contingent, are not funded by the government for their travel, stay and other expenses.

A bronze medallist at the London Olympics in 2012, Saina won the gold at the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010, but an injury dashed her hopes four years later at Glasgow.

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Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra replied, “Am sure as a member of the @olympics Athletes committee you are well aware of accreditation protocols. Wishing you all the best for the CWG.”

An Indian official told TOI,

“We were surprised about the whole issue. As far as I know the mistake is from the Indian side. We were told that the issue would be sorted out by tomorrow.”

We sincerely hope that the matter is sorted out as soon as possible so that Saina can completely focus on her game.