Wallwork follows Bankier in Badminton England exit

Yesterday Badminton England suffered yet another loss to their performance squad, as Jenny Wallwork announced her resignation from the GB Badminton Programme. Wallwork was the highest ranked and most promising female player remaining on the training programme at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. She came out with an emotional and strongly worded message against the Performance Director Jens Grill (pictured right) on Twitter (http://www.twitlonger.com/show/l56oca), explaining how she was given no opportunity to have any input into the direction of her playing career.

It seems that the Performance Directors at Badminton England are intent on imposing a strict regime, and are telling athletes that if they do not comply then they can leave. The problem is that two of the best players in Great Britain have now opted for the latter. Scot Imogen Bankier made a similar decision to Wallwork following the London 2012 Olympics, stating that there was no consultation with the players themselves about future plans in the build up to Rio 2016. When told that she needed to be in Milton Keynes for 6 days a week despite only training with mixed doubles partner Chris Adcock on 3 of those days, Bankier, whose home and personal support network were in Glasgow, decided that enough was enough.

Bankier could, however, take some solace from the fact that she could return to Scotland and continue playing. Wallwork has nowhere else to go, and by resigning from the GB Performance Programme is in effect retiring from badminton. Grill said today that the door is still open for her to return despite her scathing public outburst. Perhaps this is a sign of how important a player she is in the current squad of players, and a last ditch attempt to convince her to stay.

Overall, this sequence of events seems to suggest very poor management at the top level of badminton in England. As Doug Gillon wrote for Herald Scotland following Bankier's departure from the GB setup, "managing sometimes maverick talent is what performance directors are supposed to do, not batter it into a template." There has been widespread support for Wallwork following her decision yesterday, including Olympic rower Matthew Pinsent who congratulated her on Twitter for doing the right thing. One wonders how many other players within the GB Performance Programme will find their voices having seen the respect one of their team mates has received for speaking out.

Badminton England have reaffirmed their confidence in the current programme with a focus on young players coming through and building for the future. But in doing this are they abandoning all hope of seeing success with the current talent available? Adcock and Bankier reached the final of the 2012 World Championships. It appears unlikely that Adcock can repeat those kinds of results having restarted his partnership with girlfriend Gabby White - they failed to even reach the final of the English National Championships earlier this month. Mixed doubles has always been England and Great Britain's strongest discipline, but it could now be some time before we see anything like the achievements of Robertson and Emms or Adcock and Bankier. I hope I am proved wrong.