former national badminton champion and india international aravind bhat participated in his first stateranking tournament the 7th anandashram event in nearly 10 years this week raising a few eyebrows bhat has been missing from action at this level because of national and international commitments for the last decade following his omission from the petroleum sports promotion boards list of players for the senior nationals in september this year the seasoned shuttler appears willing to start from scratch to be in contention for a spot in the karnataka team for the south zone interstate championships in chirala andhra pradesh from september 24 after he expressed an interest to represent karnataka and obtained an noc from his employers indianoil we suggested he play a few stateranking events this guideline is the same for all players eager to represent the state unless they are in the national team or camp karnataka badminton association secretary nc sudhir told toi although bhat will travel to a few events abroad on his own we expect him to play locally too he added karnatakas other former national champion anup sridhar also not part of the pspb shortlist has also obtained an noc from bharat petroleum to represent karnataka he will also stand a chance of being picked said selection committee chairman u vimal kumar since he had made plans to play challenger events in singapore and vietnam he may not play stateranking events before we choose the team next week but the committee will discuss his chances he added the message from the kba is clear the selection committee will not overlook former internationals but a democratic approach is the way to go we dont want players to assume they are automatic choices and we dont want those players who arent picked to have issues with our selection policy said sudhir adding the selection committee also has the option of holding trials to pick the best players to represent karnataka in the south zone meet or for the september 26october 3 nationals in srinagar it was a little odd when i stepped on to the court at first i wondered what i was doing here said bhat who emerged as the winner of the stateranking event in bangalore although some matches were easy its nice to be part of the event to raise my ranking and it also helps me connect with the junior players that was interesting said bhat while the juniors benefit on court from interacting with a senior pro sudhir said a lot of responsibility would lie with the likes of bhat and sridhar if they represent karnataka in the sz meet each state has four direct entries two singles players and one doubles team for the open event in the nationals the winners of interstate championships will get four more direct entries two singles players and one doubles team so if bhat and sridhar can help karnataka win the sz meet they will ensure four more state players make the