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Tag: Badminton Association of India

  • BAI-REC partnership provides international exposure to 28 Indian shuttlers

    BAI-REC partnership provides international exposure to 28 Indian shuttlers

    Mumbai: The Badminton Association of India (BAI), with support from REC, will fund the country’s 28 talented shuttlers for international tournaments to help them improve rankings and also provide much-needed foreign exposure, required to play in top-level international badminton tournaments.

    The players ranked between 26 and 75 in the BWF world rankings along with top performers from the recent senior national championships, who are not part of the national camp but have already shown signs of brilliance, like reigning Abu Dhabi Masters champion Unnati Hooda and Tanvi Sharma, the silver medallist at the 2023 Badminton Asia U-17 Junior Championships, are among the 28 players across singles and doubles category who have been chosen based on their performances across multiple tournaments. These players will be fully funded for the tournaments.

    “Badminton Association of India is committed to ensure promising talents get much-needed support to showcase their potential as the national campers even if they are not part of the national camp. Our partnership with REC will not only help us broad base these opportunities and give shuttlers more and more opportunities to participate in multiple international challenger events as well as Super 300s and thereby better their rankings as well as gain experience of playing against foreign players. This initiative aligns with our goals to create strong opportunities for more players to show their abilities as well as compete and benefit from the national badminton structure,” said BAI secretary Sanjay Mishra.

    This opportunity has also been extended to the current senior national singles champions Chirag Sen and Anmol Kharb as well as runners-up Tharun Mannepalli and 15-year-old Tanvi Sharma – one of the youngest finalists in history. The doubles national champions Suraj Goala and Pruthvi Roy, and Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra have also been included.    

    The selected players have been given the option to choose three tournaments, including two Super 300 events — the  Orleans Masters and Swiss Open – from a total of eight tournaments, for which BAI will extend complete financial support to each of the shuttlers.

    Full list of players:

    Men’s singles:

    1. Sathish Kumar Karunakaran (World Rank 51)

    2. S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian (WR 71)

    3. Sameer Verma (WR 74)

    4. Chirag Sen (Senior Nationals champion)

    5. Tharun Mannepalli (Senior Nationals runner-up)

    Women’s Singles:

    1.Aakarshi Kashyap (WR 40)

    2.Malvika Bansod (WR 52)

    3.Unnati Hooda (WR 56)

    4. Tanya Hemanth (WR 69)

    5.Tasnim Mir (WR 73)

    6.Imad Farooqui Samiya (WR 74)

    7.Anmol Kharb (Senior National Champion)

    8.Tanvi Sharma (Senior National runner-up)

    Men’s Doubles:

    1.Hariharan Amsakarunan/Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi (WR 70)

    2.P.S Ravikrishna/Sankar Prasad Udayakunar (WR 75)

    3.Suraj Goala/Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy (Senior Nationals champions)

    Women’s Doubles:

    1. Ashwini Bhat K/Shikha Gautam (WR 49)

    2.Rutaparna Panda/Swetaparna Panda (WR 52)

    3.Simran Singh/Ritika Thaker (WR 63)

    4.Priya Konjengbam/Shruti Mishra (Senior National champions)

    Mixed Doubles:

    1. Sathish Kumar Karunakaran/Aadya Variyath (WR 64)

    LIST OF TOURNAMENTS 

    SR NO TOURNAMENT NAME DATE VENUE
    1 LI NING SRI LANKA INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE 2024 FEB 5-11, 2024 GALLE, SRI LANKA
    2 AZERBAIJAN INTERNATIONAL 2024 FEB 8-11, 2024 BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
    3 LI NING SRI LANKA INTERNATIONAL SERIES,2024 DEB 12-18, 2024 GALLE, SRI LANKA
    4 59TH PORTUGAL INTERNATIONAL SERIES  MARCH 6-10, 2024 CALDAS da RAINHA, PORTUGAL 
    5 ORLEANS MASTERS 2024- SUPER 300 MARCH 12-17, 2024 ORLEANS, FRANCE
    6 CIPUTRA HANOI – YONEX SUNRISE VIETNAM INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE 2024 MARCH 12-17, 2024 HANOI, VIETNAM
    7 DUTCH INTERNATIONAL SERIES  MARCH 14-14, 2024 WATERINGEN, NETHERLANDS
    8 SWISS OPEN-SUPER 300 MARCH 19-24,2024 BASEL, SWITZERLAND
  • Indian players gear up for Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2024

    Indian players gear up for Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2024

    Mumbai: With the Race to Paris 2024 heading into its final stretch, Indian shuttlers will have an excellent opportunity to earn valuable points and stake claims to Olympic berths across categories at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super 750 to be held at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi from January 16-21, 2024.

    Asian Games gold medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and bronze medallist HS Prannoy will aim to boost their position in the world ranking ahead of the Paris Olympics while the likes of former world number one Kidambi Srikanth, 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Lakshya Sen and the up and coming Priyanshu Rajawat will be gunning for the second Indian spot at the Games.

    According to the Paris Olympics qualification rules, two Indian men’s singles players can participate in the Games only if both of them are ranked among the top 16 at the end of the qualification process that ends on 30 April 2024.

    The Yonex-Sunrise India Open, organised by the Badminton Association of India (BAI), was upgraded to Super 750 category from Super 500 last year which means that the players can earn significantly higher ranking points in their quest for Olympics qualification.

    It has also meant that almost all the Top-10 players in current world ranking will be in action at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall and badminton lovers can enjoy watching them in action on all six days for free as the BAI has decided to keep the entry free.

    Looking forward to yet another fantastic week of quality badminton, BAI general secretary Sanjay Mishra said, “The BAI has consistently maintained a very high standard of preparation for the India Open and that has ensured that it is now a Super 750 level event. This means that all our Olympics hopefully will have a good chance of using the home conditions to earn valuable points and even win the title. It will also be a great opportunity for fans to witness some breathtaking action as more top ranked players will be participating.”

    Among the Indian stars, one among Sen and Rajawat are assured of a pre-quarterfinal spot as the young guns will face off against each other in the men’s singles opening round.

    Eighth seed Prannoy will be opening his campaign against Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei and will face the winner of the match between Sen and Rajawat after clearing the first-round hurdle.

    Former champion Srikanth, currently in 24th position in the Race to Paris rankings, will meet Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu in the opening round and has a potential second-round clash against defending champion Kunlavut Viditsarn of Thailand.

    In men’s doubles, former champions and second seeds Satwik and Chirag will kick off their challenge against World No. 25 Fang-Jen Lee and Fang-Chih Lee of Taipei in the opening round and are expected to go deeper in the competition.

    The women’s doubles combinations of Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto are also locked into a see-saw battle for an Olympics spot.

    All England semi-finalists Treesa and Gayatri have a tough opener against fourth seeds Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida of Japan while Ashwini and Crasto, who made three back-to-back finals to end 2023 on a high, will face World No. 10 Thai combination of Rawinda Prajongjai and Jongkolphan Kititharakul in the first round.

    Among the other high profile first round clashes, defending women’s singles champion An Se Young of South Korea will take on three-time champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand while Spain’s Carolina Marin will face Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a clash of former world champions.

    In men’s singles, former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore will meet third seed and reigning All England champion Li Shi Feng of China while top seed Viktor Axelsen will open his campaign against Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei.

  • Sporty Solutionz to take Badminton Association of India to court

    Sporty Solutionz to take Badminton Association of India to court

    MUMBAI: Sporty Solutionz, which is the commercial rights holders and promoter of Indian Badminton League (IBL), has called the Badminton Association of India’s (BAI) move to terminate its IBL contract as unlawful, unwarranted and against the very basics of the IBL agreement.

     

    Sporty Solutionz legal counsels are studying the case and will respond with an appropriate legal action against the Badminton Association of India and the Maharashtra Badminton Association.

     

    The Badminton Association of India and the Maharashtra Badminton Association signed the IBL agreement with Sporty Solutionz for a period of 10 years.

     

    A spokesperson from Sporty Solutionz said, “However, in the best interest of IBL, players and sports lovers, we are open to dialogue for an amicable resolution of the issue.”

     

    Sporty Solutionz is also open for a debate on any platform. The company categorically said that the Badminton Association of India’s demand for a bank guarantee of Rs 50 crore in itself was against the IBL agreement, which was signed between the three parties. Sporty Solutionz maintains that there have been no defaults on its part.

     

    “In spite of that, post discussion a sum of Rs 15 crore was agreed as the bank guarantee. This was captured in Sporty Solutionz’ last communication to the BAI on 10 March, 2015. We are awaiting a response from BAI on this,” added the spokesperson.

     

    “On three occasions BAI agreed on a window for IBL season two and back-tracked on its words. On each occasion, Sporty Solutionz had set the ball rolling, engaged international players, incurred expenses on operations and bookings,” he further informed.

     

    The onus of payment to the players, like in all leagues, rests with the franchisees as they enter into “employment” agreements with the players. However, in any inadequacies from franchisee and partners, Sporty Solutionz has come forward and resolved the situation. “We are in receipt of acknowledgements from these players that all their accounts are duly settled,” said the spokesperson.

     

    Furthermore, Sporty Solutionz has also apologized to the players, fans and all stakeholders. The company reiterates its commitment that the most successful badminton league worldwide will be in action soon.

     

    “We have full faith in the law of the land and we are optimistic that under our legitimate rights, we shall soon be sharing a lot of positives about the league,” concluded the spokesperson.

  • Indian Badminton League’s new plans for the second season

    Indian Badminton League’s new plans for the second season

    Bigger is always better and that’s what the Indian Badminton League is sorting to be.

     

    The second edition, which is slated to kick off in the second week of January 2015, is preparing itself to be bigger this year. According to official sources, IBL will see addition of two new franchises – Kolkata and Chennai – taking the total number of teams to eight. 

     

    Last season, the six teams included Lucknow (Awadhe Warriors), Bengaluru (Banga Beats), Delhi (Delhi Smashers), Hyderabad (Hyderabad Hot Shots),Mumbai ( Mumbai Masters) and Pune (Pune Pistons). 

     

    However, speculations are also rife that teams from cities like Guwahati and Jaipur might also be added.

     

    This apart, teams will also be allowed to have a total of six international players as compared to last year’s cap of four in a team. The total number of players per team will now be 13 with six international players and seven Indian players.

     

    Sources further add that this year could also see the teams breaking even or making a profit from the league.

     

    Star Sports will continue telecasting the league this year too. Production values will be improved with 16 cameras and features like improved match replays being added.

     

    The leagues intra-school talent scouting programme, Shuttle Express, will start in the coming weeks and will be held across the eight cities. Last year, 120 schools in six cities were visited and an incentive of Rs 10 lakh in prize money was handed over to the winners in both boys and girls single events. This year the prize money will remain the same.

     

    The first edition was held from 14 August to 31 August 2013 and was broadcasted live on Star Sports2 and ESPN channels. Hyderabad Hotshots had won the maiden edition of the league defeating Awadhe Warriors. With prize money of $1 million, the IBL is the richest badminton tournament in the world.

     

    This second edition was shifted to January 2015 over concerns of a busy international schedule. The Badminton Association of India (BAI) and organisers are meanwhile clearing a few bottlenecks and official announcements are expected in few weeks.

  • Indian Badminton League shuttles to Jan 2015

    Indian Badminton League shuttles to Jan 2015

    MUMBAI: Badminton fans have a reason to rejoice as the second edition of the much awaited Indian Badminton League (IBL) will be back soon. And if sources are to be believed, this edition will be held in the second week of January 2015. 

     

    The Badminton Association of India (BAI) will hold a meeting soon, where the governing council of the sports body will decide on the exact dates and venues for the league. Future developments of the game too could be discussed.

     

    While the premier badminton league was earlier supposed to be held from 30 September to 15 October, the Badminton Association of India decided to shift the second edition to early next year, over concerns of a busy international schedule.

     

    BAI vice president – administration TPS Puri had earlier said, “The first edition of the IBL was a grand success and badminton lovers are eagerly awaiting the second season. However, we want to ensure that all the top players are available for the tournament and that looks difficult this year due to the busy international schedule.”

     

    The inaugural edition of the IBL which was held in August, last year, had the backing and strong support of corporates, players and badminton fans in India.