Vietnam’s best-ever badminton player by far, world number 15 Nguyen Tien Minh, is a very disgruntled athlete now that he finds he has not been entered in two important international tournaments next month.

Minh’s results in the English and Swiss Super Series last March earned him 7,200 points, moving him up five places to 33rd in the world, and were the starting point for his meteoric rise to 15th place by the end of 2008.

The invitations for Vietnam to compete in the same tournaments again were sent to the Vietnam Badminton Federation (VBF) in Hanoi some time ago, but the VBF disclaims any responsibility for the fiasco and says the blame lies squarely with the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

“It’s up to the provincial or city authorities to apply to the VBF when they want to enter a player in an international tournament. The VBF only registers players for international competitions when they are members of the national team,” VBF general secretary Le Thanh Sang told Thanh Nien.

“Minh is managed by HCMC’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Before the Lunar New Year (January 26), I asked the department to help him compete in the Super Series in England and Switzerland and said the VBF would pay the entry fee for one of the tournaments. However, we haven’t heard back from them since,” Sang said.

Minh, who turned 26 Thursday, was looking forward to getting enough points to increase his world ranking even more, but to his great chagrin he recently learned he was not entered in either event.

Just competing in both would have given him 4,400 points even if he didn’t win a match. Any match wins would have meant even more points and moved him up the rankings, perhaps into the top 10 in the world.

“I had set a goal of winning a few matches at the two important events to become one of the world’s ten best players,” Minh said. “However, I can’t take part in them now so I will drop five places or more after March. Competitiveness among the top 20 players is intense so it will be very hard to get back to 15th place, let alone do better than that.”

His mother is just as upset. “Minh’s participation in the two competitions in England and Switzerland was in the 2009 plans of the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism,” Le Thi Vui said.

“The irresponsibility of the people in charge is very disappointing. My family hopes the authorities will take whatever steps are necessary to prevent the same thing happening to anyone again.”

Reported by Nhut Quang