New Delhi: Over 100 top international and national badminton players, including Rio Olympic champion and World Number 1 Carolina Marin, Olympic Silver medalists PV Sindhu and Bronze medalist Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, will go under the hammer when the high-profile Players’ Auction for the second edition of the Premier Badminton League gets under way here on Wednesday.
The League promises to be a much bigger and classier affair this year, with as many as 16 Olympic medallists confirming their participation. The six-team strong competition will begin on January 1 and finish on January 14, with the finals being played in New Delhi. Matches will be held in state of the art stadia across the country, including in badminton pockets like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Lucknow.
Each franchise will be splashing Rs. 1.93 crore to build a formidable team, with the individual price for the top players likely to go up to a phenomenal amount of Rs 65 lakhs for the two-week league! As many as three men’s singles players, including Axelsen, Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark and Sun Won Ho of Korea, and four women’s singles players, including Marin, Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Sung Ji Hyun of Korea, have been clubbed in the icon bracket.
All available players will go under the hammer but teams have the option of retaining three players by invoking the Right to Match option and paying up the final bid price. This should make the bidding process an exciting spectacle while at the same time testing the strategic acumen of each team.
Expressing his delight over the world-class line-up for the auction, BAI President and Chairman of PBL, Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta, said: “It is a matter of immense pride for us to be back with the new edition of the PBL. It was a huge success last year and we promise to not only replicate the same level of success but to also strive to make it even better. We are confident of offering a highly exciting League this year which will enthuse our lakhs of fans.”
Badminton has seen a surge of popularity over the last few years, with the emergence of world-class players from India. “It is, in fact, the only world-wide sport in which our boys and girls compete as equals with the world’s best,” Dr Das Gupta pointed out.
“Thanks to the spectacular performance of Indian Players at the Olympics, the game has added a large number of new viewers, so our effort will be to make the League as exciting and interesting as possible. We are bringing in certain innovations in the format of the League to make it even more spectator friendly,” said Pullela Gopichand, the National coach and Chief Advisor of PBL.
Sportzlive, the Gurgaon based Sports Management company, has acquired the long-term licence of PBL and will be conducting the League under the aegis of Badminton Association of India. “The Premier Badminton League has the potential to become one of the most admired sporting leagues in the country, thanks to the surging popularity of the sport along with the rising graph of India’s players. We want to realise this potential by running it in the most efficient way possible and making it the most professionally-managed League,” said Atul Pande, Managing Director of Sportzlive.
“We also want to use the PBL to expand the fan base for Badminton by engaging directly with fans. We will soon launch an intense and innovative Multi-media campaign in partnership with some of the best names in the industry,” revealed Prasad Mangipudi, Executive Director of Sportzlive.
The 15-day league will see six teams, namely Delhi Acers, Mumbai Rockets, Chennai Smashers, Hyderabad Hunters, Awadhe Warriors and Bangalore Blasters battle for a total prize purse of Rs 6 crore, making it the highest prize money badminton tournament in the world.
The Acers are owned by Infinite Computer Solutions while the Smashers and the Hunters are owned by Wone Pvt. Ltd and Agile Security Force Pvt. Ltd. Warriors, which has been in the League since its inception is owned by Sahara Adventure Sports Limited. While the Mumbai team is owned by Medhavi Sports Pvt. Ltd the Bengaluru team is owned by the consortium that has invested in Kerala Blasters, an India Super League team and Bangalore Top Guns and it has been rechristened as Bangalore Blasters.
