The call to ‘Smash the house down’ was made at the launch of the Vodafone Premier Badminton League, in the presence of top stars like Olympic champion Carolina Marin and Saina Nehwal, here on Wednesday.
There may not be any change to the total prize purse of ₹6 crore, with the champion taking half of it, but the third edition promises to be ‘bigger, meaner and stronger’.
The league, scheduled to start in Guwahati on December 23, will have eight teams and climax in Hyderabad during the Pongal or Makar Sankranti holiday weekend.
Live telecast
The event, which boasts of eight current World Championship medallists, nine Olympic medallists and 16 players in the top-10 of world ranking, would be telecast live.
Olympic and World Championship silver medallist P.V. Sindhu and the World No.1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark sent their video messages. “Lot of good players are coming. We will have to play the best,” said Sindhu. “It will be very hard and very exciting. Hopeful that I can do my best,” was Axelsen’s message.
Pointing at the improved performances of the Indian players in recent times, Ajay Jayaram stressed that they would be competing at a “whole new level”.
Expressing happiness about the league growing in a big way, the secretary-general of the Badminton Association of India (BAI), Anup Narang, said that it was the “world’s biggest and best league”.
Commending the fabulous growth of Indian badminton, which he pegged at 25% a year, based on a market study, the chairman of SportzLive, the marketing partner of the BAI, Atul Pandey said that Indian badminton with four players in the top-10 was in great health.
“The aim is to make PBL on par with the World Championship or even bigger,” said Pandey, as he spelt the growth of the league from 60 to 80 players and 23 matches spread over 28 days including the travel time.
Each team will have one under-17 player, with a chance to compete against the top players, which was felt to augur well for the future of the game in the country. Each game will be best of three sets, with a sudden death point at 14-14.
The top four teams from the league phase will qualify for the semifinals.
“It is amazing to see the top players and a lot of youngsters. I look forward to tough matches. Badminton is growing in India,” said Saina Nehwal.
Marin said that she felt India to be her “second home”, and that she was impressed with the growth of Indian badminton.
“Last time when the PBL finished, friends and family said that they felt a void in the evening. It is good that it will last longer this time”, said Jayaram.
The majestic trophy was unveiled and the congregation of players posed with it, possibly as an appetiser ‘to go all out’ and grab it on January 14.