Eight badminton players have been dramatically disqualified from Olympic competition today on the allegations of “throwing” matches. Four pairs in the women's doubles competition – one from China, one from Indonesia and two from South Korea – were barred after being hit by disciplinary charges. The eight badminton players at the heart of the scandal have been charged with not using one's best efforts to win a match and conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport.In another development, India has lodged a formal protest with the Games organisers to probe if the women's doubles badminton match involving Japan and Chinese Taipei was played in the right spirit. This follows the elimination of Women's double pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa from the London Olympics,Last night, Jwala and Ashwini missed out on a quarterfinal berth by a difference of just one point, even though they beat Shinta Mulia Sari and Lei Yao of Singapore 21-16, 21-15 in their last group B match, after tying with Japan and Taipei on the number of wins.Prior to India's final group game last night, the World number five Japanese pair of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa had lost to Taipei's Cheng Wen Hsing and Chien Yu Chin.