The $1-million Indian Badminton League on Monday got its Delhi franchise in Gurgaon-based business conglomerate, Krrish Group, who bagged the rights for the team and named it Delhi Smashers.
The Gurgaon-based company appointed former world no. 1 shuttler Rashid Sidek as the team’s chief coach. The Malaysian had won the Thomas Cup besides an Olympic bronze medal.
Sidek was also instrumental in motivating the new generation of Malaysian players including current world no. 1 Lee Chong Wei, Wong Mew Choo and Wong Choong Hann.
Amit Katyal, owner of the Krrish Group said, “We consider ourselves lucky that we got the team that we were targetting.”
The IBL is set to be launched in six different cities across India from August 14.
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Asian indoor games gold for sengupta
Kolkata, July 8: Grandmaster Deep Sengupta outwitted GM Golizadeh Asghar to help the Indian mixed chess team clinch a silver at the 4th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games that concluded at Incheon, South Korea, on Saturday.
In the two-round mixed team championship, India beat Iran 2.5-1.5 by virtue of Deep’s win against Asghar as the other games ended in draws. However, in the final, the Indian team were beaten by China 3-1.
Apart from Deep (Fide rating 2544), the Indian chess team consisted of GM S. Sethuraman (2559), WGM Pradip Bhakti Kulkarni (2271) and WGM Meenakshi Subbaraman (2217).
— PTI