After the huge success of the Indian Premier League, it was only a matter of time before the idea was tried with other sports in India. Now, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) is mulling a similar franchise-based competition in India to develop the sport in the country.
Punnaiah Choudary, BAI joint secretary, says the idea for the format and structure has been borrowed from the IPL. “Looking at how IPL managed to skyrocket the popularity of cricket, we thought it would be great if we can do something like that for badminton,” he says.
However, with cricket being a team-based sport and badminton being an individual one, there are bound to be changes in the structure, according to Choudary. “This will be a team-based tournament, and there will be no individual events. It will be quite similar in structure to the IPL.”
Choudary also adds, “We had initially thought of a national level, state-versus-state tournament, but then we realised most of the badminton players are from either Andhra Pradesh or Kerala like Saina Nehwal, P. Kashyap, Guru Saidutt, H.S. Prannoy, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, to name a few. That is when we decided we would go for a franchise-based model. First, we will auction state-based franchises to private entities, and then hold a player auction. That will help create a level-playing field.”
However, all discussions on this have come to a halt as the BAI has run into rough weather. If all had gone according to plan, we would have seen the first season of this tournament held this summer. The tournament will take any shape before 2012. One of the biggest selling points of the IPL has been the inclusion of overseas players. However, while Punnaiah Choudary admits they haven’t thought of that aspect yet, it is definitely a possibility.
Bhaskar Babu, a senior coach at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy says if this idea is properly worked out, then it will go a long way in advancing the interests of the players and the game. “Players will stand to make some money, and it will open up doors to parents and children approaching the game as a viable career option,” he said.