NEW DELHI: Commenwealth Games Gold Medalist, H.S. Prannoy, who was critical of the Badminton Association of India when his name was not recommended for the Arjuna Award recently, submitted an unconditional apology to the BAI on Tuesday. 

Prannoy was eventually recommended for the award by national coach Pullela Gopichand in his capacity as a former Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna recipient.

The world number 28 apologised to BAI after the governing body show caused him for his outburst on social media and also highlighted some past disciplinary issues involving him.

BAI president Himanta Biswa Sarma has accepted his apology and general secretary Ajay Singhania hoped the incident won’t be repeated.

Earlier this month, Prannoy had hit out at the BAI and had questioned the selection criteria for the Arjuna Award. The shuttler had said that the players who have won nothing have been recommended, while the players who have medals to their credit have been snubbed. His remarks came after BAI recommended the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and men's singles player Sameer Verma for the Arjuna Award.

BAI said it has "diligently assessed the performances of the athletes and coaches during the last four years before sending the names to the Sports Ministry for the recommendation." In the last four years, Prannoy had a good run in 2018 where he won a gold medal as part of the Indian mixed team that became champions at the Commonwealth Games for the first time.

He won a bronze at the Wuhan Asian Championships and achieved a career-best ranking of World No. 8 in May, 2018. In 2017, Prannoy had defeated former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and reigning Olympic Champion Chen Long of China in successive matches at the Indonesian Open. He also reached the final of the US Open the same year. He was also part of the men's team that won bronze medals at the Asia Team C'ships in 2016 and 2020