What’s happening at the BFI?

Dear Friends,

It has taken a long time for me to come to writing this post. Believe you me, I have agonized about it for the past several weeks about whether we should air the issues taxing the BFI in such a public manner. I kept telling myself that the officials of the BFI are doing their best at a hard and thankless task and I have many better things to do anyway. Nevertheless, I couldn't hold myself back any longer and here is a post of issues with and questions for the BFI.

BFI Website

The genesis of the article started, innocently enough when, in the wake of a few tournaments in North India, somebody asked why these cannot be seen in the BFI calendar. So, when I visited the BFI Calendar on the website, this is what is visible on the first page.

This would suggest that the calendar on the website has not been updated since at least February. Indeed, the summer nationals, which are round the corner, do not find a mention on their calendar

There was a time when Hari Shankar from Bangalore was maintaining such a calendar and a few people implored he be allowed to manage the website. Whether the request was officially made and if so, whether it was considered, is beyond the knowledge of the author.

The BFI website has been a problem since around April 2022 actually. Around a year ago, officials were assuring the community that it would be fixed in a few weeks, and later, when the new committee came into being. Well, it is over six months since the new committee has come into being and, regrettably, the website continues to be in the same sorry state.

Master Points

Similarly, a few days ago, somebody requested an update on Master Points to figure out eligibility for Silver / Gold. Once again, the Master Points have not been updated since the Summer Nationals Last year. Why this is the case remains a total mystery.

If any team participates in Silver with a National Master too many, and this gets discovered post the event, how will this be resolved?

BFAME Participation

The participation of the Indian contingent at the BFAME is another confounding issue. What is evident is as follows

• The contingent did not travel at its own expense
• The BFI did not have funds to bear the expense
• SAI was legally restrained from transferring funds to BFI

Therefore the source of the funds remain a mystery. The modalities of payment are also not very apparent considering that the event was in Pakistan.

What next?

There are many other rumors and questions floating around about the continued participation of some members of the present committee, continuation of the committee itself etc. But let us not bother ourselves about these things.

The BFI needs to get its act together to take the bridge community into confidence and gather their support for the undoubtedly difficult path that lies ahead.

We do hope that the BFI puts some sort of response to these issues (ideally on their website).

Sukrit Vijayakar

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