The Badminton World Federation (BWF), on Tuesday, indefinitely postponed Thomas and Uber Cup, the prestigious team tournament which was scheduled to be held in Aarhus, Denmark from October 3 to 12. The decision comes after several teams, including powerhouses South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia, pulled out of the tournament due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

However, the BWF said it has decided to go ahead with the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament which will be held from October 13 to 18. However, Denmark Masters, scheduled for October 20 to 25 has been cancelled.

This is the third time the BWF has postponed the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals. Notably, India had announced a 20-member contingent for TUC 2020 as PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were expected to lead the teams.

Following the withdrawals, the BWF had invited the likes of Hong Kong, Singapore and European teams, Finland and Sweden to fill in the void. However, the final decision came with BWF acknowledging that it wouldn’t be able to deliver ‘the level of competition reasonably expected by fans and all stakeholders’.

“The decision comes following the withdrawal of a number of participating teams from the TOTAL BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals and the European leg of the adjusted HSBC BWF World Tour,” the BWF said.

“These are exceptional circumstances we find ourselves in and while a return to international badminton remains a priority for the BWF, the health and safety of the entire badminton community is of utmost importance.

“Therefore, after lengthy discussions with key stakeholders, commercial partners and participating Member Associations, it has been realised that we are not in a position to deliver the level of competition reasonably expected by fans and all stakeholders, and as a result have decided that we will not stage this year’s TOTAL BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals on the dates 3-11 October 2020.