Just concluded Indian Badminton League was a huge success in all manner. Crowd was present in all ties, cheering for home team. There was lot of money involved in the league.
The Hyderabad team earned about $500,000 for the victory, while Lucknow received around $200,000.
“The IBL is a game-changer as far as Indian badminton is concerned,” said former India international and commentator Sanjay Sharma. “It gave a platform for our juniors to rub shoulders and learn from world stars.
“Players earned serious money for a little over a fortnight’s work. Usually they get around $20,000 to $25,000 for winning a tournament. But in the IBL most players got more for just playing in it.”
Each team, comprising four foreign players, six Indians and one upcoming Indian junior, played in a double-leg preliminary round, with the top four qualifying for the semi-finals.
All ties consisted of five matches — two men’s singles, and one match each in women’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
To quicken the pace, the standard two-point gap to win a game was abandoned in favour of a race to 21 points for the first two games and 11 points for the decider, if needed.
Badminton Powerhouse China backed out due to earlier commitments but it is interesting to see weather they play in next year edition or not? There is a chance that next year edition could have more than six teams.