National champion Chetan Anand and the top women's pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien paid dearly for their anti-federation stance as the Badminton Association of India dropped them from the Sudirman Cup championship in June.
After more than a week of feud between the shuttlers and establishment which created a furore, the BAI selection committee met in Mumbai on Wednesday and decided to crack the whip on the trio for not attending the ongoing camp in Hyderabad and also not showing up for selection trials.
"They were invited to the national camp that commenced on April 24 and also an opportunity was given to them to participate in the trials in Hyderabad (May 6-8) but they failed to report," the BAI said in a statement.
Without its top-ranked singles player and top women's doubles duo, India will field an under-strength side for the World Team championship in Glasgow, Scotland, from June 10-17.
Promising youngster P Kashyap was given a chance in place of Anand, while Ashwin Ponappa and Nitya Sosale will replace Jwala and Shruti.
Other players of the 10-member team who were selected beforehand are Anup Sridhar, Rupesh Kumar, Sanave Thomas and V Diju, in the men's squad, while Saina Nehwal, Aditi Mutatkar and Aparna Balan make up the women's team.
BAI said the rebel trio had earlier skipped the Asian Championship and camp that was held before the event.
"They were selected in the national team for the Asian Championship (April) but dropped out on their own. They failed to report for the two national camps in March and April and also failed to participate in the Asian Championship," the BAI said.
The trio had boycotted the camp protesting the BAI's move to stop their entries for the Super Series events in Singapore and Indonesia.
After the European tour, based on an in-house report, the BAI found the shuttlers needed to work on endurance and did not send the team for the Super Series events in Singapore and Indonesia.
"The Committee noted that Chetan Anand, Jwala and Shruti were sent for three major tournaments -- All England, German Open and Swiss Open -- but lost in the very first round. The accompanying team coach commented on their poor endurance and match fitness.
"The purpose of the camp was precisely to address the shortcoming of the players for their improved performance."
The shuttlers asked the BAI to allow them to play in the two Super Series on their own after which they would join the camp. Otherwise, they said, their rankings would suffer. The federation denied them the permission.
"The government guidelines stipulate that for major international tournaments, players selected to represent the country are necessarily required to attend the national camp," BAI president V K Verma said in the statement.
The BAI also said that in the Sudirman Cup team format only one men's singles match is played in the tie and on current form Anup Sridhar, who reached the semi-finals in the Asian Championship and German Open, will play.
On Jwala and Shruti, the BAI said the duo had been training at two different places instead of utilising the services of doubles specialist Hadi Idres.
