Indian Badminton League
Indian Badminton League (IBL) is a franchise league proposed by Badminton Association of India. The inaugural edition of the Indian Badminton League will take place in India from 14 to 31 August 2013. The league will have Indian as well as foreign players. With 6 franchises, each league franchise has 11 players including four foreign players, six Indian players and one junior player.
Matches will be played in four categories comprising singles of men, singles of women, doubles of men and mixed doubles. The player auction for the first IBL was held in Delhi on 22 July 2013. The final is scheduled in Mumbai on August 31. The match will be played under the Sudirman Cup format and would be televised LIVE to more than 100 countries. The top four teams will make the semi-finals. The matches will be played in two legs home and away. The proposed launch of the Indian Badminton League (IBL) is a huge jump for the sport. The Badminton Association of India (BAI) has also made it mandatory for top badminton players to participate in this league.
The teams ready to face the Indian Badminton League are:
- Delhi Smashers
- Mumbai Masters
- Awadhe Warriors
- Pune Pistons
- Hyderabad Hotshots
- Banga Beats
The League is expected to draw the attention from the biggest names bringing the game closer to the fans and giving a new direction to this particular sport. Actor Aamir Khan and actress Deepika Padukone are the faces of this league and would be seen promoting it on air. Indian players Parupalli Kashyap hawked away to Banga Beats for 75000 US Dollars and Pusarla Venkata Sindhu to Awadhe Warriors for 80000 US Dollars. Tinh Minh Nyugen who is actually a Vietnamese player shifted to Pune for 44000 US Dollars. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa who are doubles specialist Indian players were take on board below their base price of 50000 US Dollars as Jwala was vended to Delhi for just 31000 US Dollars and Ashwini to Pune for25000 US Dollars.
They both lashed out at The Indian Badminton League organizers for not honoring the terms of contract. A controversy erupted after Jwala Gutta and her former doubles partner Ashwini Ponnappa, who is bronze medalists in the 2011 World Championship and also the title winners in 2010 Commonwealth Games lashed out at the Indian Badminton League after their base price was slashed to half just before the start of the auction. Jwala Gutta who is one of the six icon players at the auction has slammed the IBL organizers that she felt dishonesty being imparted to her and blamed the league for misleading her. They both were guaranteed a base price of 50000 US Dollars but it was reduced to 25000.
The Indian Badminton League organizers announced telecom major Vodafone India as the title sponsor of the event. It is definitely the preeminent thing to have happened for Indian badminton. The league would certainly enhance the popularity of the sport besides bringing in more money for the players.
Time would decide who performs well and who goes for average. Fate would decide which four teams would clash with each other. Mumbai would witness a semi final on 31 August, till then be with us and catch the latest updates from IBL. Till then we would like to wish all the teams of IBL a very good luck.