MUMBAI: Star Sports has renewed its Badminton World Federation (BWF) media rights for a four-year cycle. The deal is from 2018 to 2021 as per BWF calendar.
Star India-owned BWF’s official media rights for India for the previous four-year term (2014-2017) which expired in December 2017. Since there was a delay in extending the association between Star and BWF, fans ended up missing several events including the Indonesia Masters in January where Saina Nehwal had reached the final, before going down to her nemesis Tai Tzu Ying for her seventh successive loss to the top rank holder. Indian fans were also deprived of the live coverage of the Swiss Open last month and the German Open earlier this month.
Star is currently broadcasting the All-England Open Badminton Championship through its parent 21st Century Fox which has inked a deal with Badminton England, the national governing body for the sport in England.
MUMBAI: The World Badminton Championships 2017 are scheduled to be telecast live from Monday (21 August) at 3:30 pm India time from Glasgow in Scotland on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 1 HD. Simultaneously, it will be live-streamed on Star India’s Hotstar and YouTube. The BWF championships will conclude on Sunday (27 August).
The BWF World Championships is held every year except for the year of an Olympic Games. It is a showcase of the very best in the sport and it determines who are the World Champions in each of the five disciplines, men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The championships is an individual event and each Member Association is invited to enter their players through the world ranking qualification. For each event, the joint third place winner gets a bronze medal, the runner-up silver and the winner is awarded a gold medal and title “World Champion”.
Since Prakash Padukone’s bronze medal in 1983, India never won a medal in men’s section at the world championships. Srikanth, who has been handed a comparatively easier draw among the four, will start his championships campaign against Russia’s Sergey Sirant.
Ajay Jayaram, B Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth, and Sameer Verma will represent India in men’s singles while PV Sindhu, Rituparna Das, Saina Nehwal and Tanvi Lad will participate in women’s singles. Three teams — Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy and Arjun MR/Shlok Ramchandran will represent the country in men’s doubles. Ashwini Ponnappa/Sikki Reddy, Sanjana Santosh/Arathi Sara Sunil and Meghana Jakkampudi/Poorvisha S Ram would play in women’s Doubles.
Four Indian teams of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/K Maneesha, Ashwini Ponnappa/Sumeeth Reddy, Prajakta Sawant/Yogendran Krishnan and Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Sikki Reddy would play in the mixed doubles event.
India’s hopes for medals depend on Australian Open and Indonesian champion Kidambi Srikanth, and Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu. The mixed doubles team of Sikki Reddy and Pranav Jerry Chopra could probably win too.
Schedule for Indian players on 21 August
Men’s singles
Sergey Sirant Vs Srikanth Kidambi — 6.10pm approx.
Pablo Abian Vs Sameer Verma — 8.30pm approx
Men’s doubles
Chung Eui Seok/Kim Dukyoung Vs Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy — 8.45pm approx
Women’s singles
Airi Mikkela Vs Rituparna Das — 9.50pm approx.
Chloe Birch Vs Tanvi Lad — 8.30pm approx
Women’s doubles
Natalya Voytsekh/Yelyzaveta Zharka Vs Sanjana Santosh/Arathi Sara Sunil — 8.30pm
Mixed doubles
Sawan Serasinghe/Setyana Mapasa Vs Ashwini Ponnappa/Sumeeth Reddy — 3.30pm
Tam Chun Hei/NG Tsz Yau Vs Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/K Maneesha — 6.10pm approx
Lu Ching Yao/Chiang Kai Hsin Vs Prajakta Sawant/Yogendran Krishnan — 6.30pm
MUMBAI: Keeping up with its commitment of building and supporting heroes in Indian sports, Star Sports is giving it’s viewers a reason to ‘cheer’ India’s shuttling superstar Saina Nehwal. The leading sports broadcaster is recruiting 20 passionate Indian fans to join the ‘Saina Squad,’ an ensemble of Saina Nehwal supporters who will be flown to Dubai to cheer on the ace shuttler at the BWF World Superseries finals, 9 – 13 December 2015.
Currently ranked second in the world, Nehwal is one of India’s biggest sporting icons. She reflects the aspirations of millions of Indians and has a huge following of fans cutting across demographics. That same support, however, is missing when she plays abroad. But now, with Star Sports forming the #SainaSquad, she can count on an army of fans cheering her on in Dubai.
The ‘Saina Squad’ will play from the stands and support the Badminton prodigy during the tournament. The ubiquitous ensemble will drive, motivate and cheer the ace shuttler as she will take on the world’s best players in the Emirates state.
Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said, “Saina Nehwal, with her exceptional performances in the recent past, is the new sporting icon in the country. From reaching the summit of the sport to medals in Olympics and Superseries, Saina has done the country proud. As a broadcaster, we believe in bringing the fans closer to the game and their heroes. Keeping Saina’s growing fanbase in mind, we decided to form an ensemble of fans that will support her during her next international tour. We are confident ‘Saina Squad’ will not only create a platform for her fans but will also help increase the following of the sport.”
Saina Nehwal said, “The support I have at home in India is phenomenal and while I do have followers internationally, there’s still a certain buzz that’s missing when I’m playing abroad. I’m always striving to give my best on the court for the nation but having my own army of fans cheering for me in Dubai will definitely give me a massive boost. I would like to thank Star Sports for giving me my own army of fans through ‘Saina Squad’.”
‘Saina Squad’ will be shortlisted after a series of contests and activities on Social media. The first of those contests – featuring 20 cards celebrating Saina’s career achievements – kicked off on November 9. Fans can tweet using the hashtag #SainaFact to get a card. Those who collect all 20 cards will be eligible to be shortlisted. The activity will be followed by a quiz contest, an online treasure hunt, a puzzle featuring Saina’s top moments for fans to solve and a Saina chant competition. Finally, participants will have to answer why they think they are fit to join the ‘Saina Squad’.
The film has been planned and executed by the in-house team. The creative team had Mustafa Rangwala, Prathamesh Sakte, Ajeet Mistry. The production house who executed the production was O2 films and was directed by Ninad Chava. The marketing team consisted of, Shubhranshu Singh, Jarmaan Randhawa, Snigdha S
ActivityTimelines:
November 9-10 : Saina Factoids
November 13-14 : Video Quiz
November 16 : Timeline Treasure Hunt
November 17-18 : Top Saina Moments
November 20-21 : Saina Chant & Cheer
November 23-24 : Last stage – Why should you be in the Saina Squad?
