Hyderabad District Badminton Association President Chamundeswarinath, who presented the luxury car which Dipa Karmakar wants to return owing to maintenance issues, on Wednesday said he will have a word with the gymnast on the difficulties she is facing in handling the vehicle.
“We will discuss with her. Whatever Dipa is comfortable with, we will look into it; if not BMW car,” Chamundeswarinath told in Hyderabad.
Karmakar had indicated about difficulties in the maintenance of a BMW car, which was handed over to her by cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.“The idea of gifting cars to the sportspersons was to encourage them to do better,” he said.
Rio Olympics medallists PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Karmakar, who narrowly missed out on a medal, were gifted with luxury cars by Chamundeswarinath for their achievements in the Rio Olympics.
Tendulkar, who was the Goodwill Ambassador of the Indian team at Rio Olympics, handed over the keys of the vehicles to them at a function held at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy here on August 28.
Now, the Karmakars are planning to return the mean machine and seek a replacement – a car which can be driven around Tripura’s capital.
Dipa, 23, was gifted the car by the Hyderabad Badminton Association as a token of appreciation for her feat – the first Indian to participate in the gymnastics of the showpiece event though she narrowly failed to win a medal after finishing fourth.
BMW’s brand ambassador in India, former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, had handed over the car keys to Dipa along with two medal winners, shuttler PV Sindhu and wrestler Sakshi Malik. Sindhu’s coach P Gopichand was also given a BMW car.
“Roads in Tripura are not good enough to drive such a vehicle There are no capable drivers in Agartala town to drive a BMW and the company has no showroom or service centre in the state,” Dipa’s father Dulal Karmakar told HT. Dipa’s BMW XI costs around Rs 30 to Rs 35 lakh.
