Saina Nehwal of India plays a shot during the Badminton women's singles at the Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010. Indian badminton players and officials welcomed a decision by the sport's bosses to shelve a controversial new ruling that would have forced women to wear skirts or dresses on court.
The new regulation, which sparked the worst internal wrangling in years and saw badminton gain unprecedented media coverage, had already been delayed once but had been due to come into effect on June 1.
The sport's governing body, the Badminton World Federation (BWF), met Saturday in the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao and decided to shelve the ruling pending a new dress code proposal in December.
"It is a very good decision by the BWF. They couldn't have gone ahead with the mandatory skirt ruling anyways," India's top women's doubles player Jwala Gutta was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.
"It can never be a compulsion on the players and it is good that they are rethinking the decision."
Badminton Association of India (BAI) vice-president T.P.S. Puri also welcomed the decision, which will allow players to continue wearing shorts during games.
"This is the right approach by the BWF. If it would have been made compulsory then many players would have become uncomfortable," he said.
"A lot of nations, including India, objected to the mandatory nature of the ruling and we welcome this decision of the governing body."
Some players had accused the game's administrators of sexism, but badminton bosses countered that they were merely trying to boost the profile of the women's game and help attract more sponsorship.
China, Indonesia and India were among a host of countries which had raised fierce objections, while in Malaysia, the opposition Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) called for a boycott of tournaments.
Despite rapid modernisation, India remains a generally conservative country where public displays of sexuality are taboo and women are expected to dress modestly.
