Full text of Parupalli Kashyap's plea to Sushma Swaraj as top shuttlers face visa problems ahead of major tournaments

Badminton has once again taken centre stage among the sporting fraternity in the country after the successful run of Indian shuttlers in the recent past. Not just the ones who finished on the podium, quite a few others have impressed with wins over top-ranked shuttlers.

At this juncture, it has emerged that Men's singles shuttlers HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap along with Women's doubles star Sikki Reddy are in danger of missing out on crucial major tournaments due to visa problems.

With the deadline to leave for the tournaments fast approaching, Kashyap, former top-10 shuttler, has sought help from the Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, on behalf of his teammates as well. The 65-year-old veteran politician, who is well known for her timely responses on Twitter, is yet to reply to the shuttler's Tweet [as of 5pm IST, July 4].

Here is the full text of Kashyap's request on the social media platform.

"Dear Madam, Me, Prannoy and Sikki Reddy applied for New Zealand visa one week back and requested for urgent processing of visa. As we have to leave for tournaments on 6th of July to Canada and US Opens, we require our passports urgently. Ma'am I request you to help us in this matter so that we can travel on 6th July (Thursday)," Kashyap wrote.

He added: "Details: 1) Parupalli Kashyap - Z4032291, 2) Prannoy Haseena Sunil Kumar - Z2959535 3) Sikki Reddy - Z3717776."

Notably, Prannoy, who defeated the likes of Lee Chong Wei and Chen Long at Indonesia Superseries Premier last month, is seeded second at Canada Open 2017, starting 11 July in Calgary. Kashyap will start the Grand Prix tournament as the 16th seed.

The second seeded Mixed doubles pair of Sikki and Pranaav Jerry were also in the fray along with third-seeded Men's shuttler Sameer Verma.

At the US Open, to be held between July 19 and 23, Prannoy is seeded second with Pranaav/Sikki starting as third-seeded Mixed doubles pair.