The $1 million Indian Badminton League players’ auction has yet again been postponed and will happen now on Monday.
The organisers, in a statement released on Thursday, said franchise owners had sought a two-day workshop to prepare for the bidding.
The auction was originally set for March, before it was put off till June 30 and then later re-scheduled for Friday.
Speaking to this paper, Ashish Chadha, CEO of Sporty Solutionz, the commercial partner for IBL, explained: “The auction has not been postpond, it’s just that the franchises wanted two extra days for preparation ahead of the bidding. In the last 40 hours, we have announced two franchises. As the owners of most of the franchises were abroad, they needed time to prepare themselves.
“As far the preparation for the auction, it’s going well and everything will be ready in time.”
Chadha also revealed that they had got confirmations from two to three Chinese players for the auction, though he refused to name them.
“Chinese players are always skeptical of these leagues. Also, China have their National Games from August 31, so they didn’t release their players. But that’s okay, we are not worried as there are other top stars participating.” added Chaddha.
A total of 112 foreigners including world no. 1 Lee Chong Wei and Thai teen sensation Intanon Ratchanok have confirmed, even as an equal numbers of Indians will be available for the auction, said Chadha.
Five Indians including world no. 3 Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap, P.V. Sindhu, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa besides Malaysian Lee have been named as icon players. Each team will have the liberty to have up to four foreign players, besides six Indian shuttlers and a junior Indian.
All the six teams — Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Lucknow— have been sold with the Mumbai Masters being the last team to be bought on Wednesday.
The capital will stage the opening ceremony on August 13, while the finals will be held in Mumbai on August 31.