Uber Cup and Thomas Finals have been postponed to next year by BWF.

The Badminton World Federation postponed the Thomas and Uber Cup in Denmark on Tuesday to next year following a surge of withdrawals from top teams because of the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

India had named both the women’s and men’s squads for the popular event scheduled for 3-11 October in Aarhus, Denmark.

However, the governing body of the sport held a virtual emergency council meeting on Sunday after Indonesia and South Korea joined Thailand, Australia, Chinese Taipei, and Algeria in pulling out because of the dreaded disease on Friday.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has made the difficult decision to postpone the Complete BWF 2020 finals of Thomas and Uber Cup in Aarhus, Denmark, in full consultation and agreement with the localhost Badminton Denmark,” said by BWF in a statement.

The decision comes after several competing teams have been excluded from the Complete BWF Uber cup and Thomas Finals and the European leg of the modified HSBC BWF World Tour.

“BWF is looking at potential alternate dates for the World Men’s and Women ‘s Team Championships to be rescheduled, but not until 2021”.

The BWF had attempted to rope as a substitute in Singapore and Hong Kong but refused the invitation. There were also rumours that Japan considered a withdrawal from the event, while China, too, was awaiting approval from the government. The last confirmation date was 18 September.

Among top players on Sunday, India’s Saina Nehwal had raised questions about the event’s timing, asking if it would be possible to go ahead with it amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

Saina was expected to lead the 10-member women’s team in Uber Cup along with Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu, while world number no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth would also have led the Indian men’s campaign at Thomas.

The BWF, however, has agreed to continue as originally scheduled in the BWF Tournament Calendar (13-18 October) with the “Denmark Open in Odense, an HSBC BWF World Tour Event.”

“The second tournament is scheduled for Odense-the VICTOR Denmark Masters 2020-scheduled for October 20-25 has been cancelled as this additional event is no longer feasible.”