Chennai to host Premier Badminton League semi-finals and final

In a news conference, Punniah Chowdhury, the secretary of events, Badminton Association of India, said the general consensus was that as the defending champion Chennai should host the league this year.

“Last year, we wanted to bring the league here but a combination of circumstances prevented it. This year we would like to host the semi-final and final here,” he said.

Substantiating the view, Pullela Gopichand, advisor to PBL said there was a big following for the game in the city. “Recently, it hosted a national event and it was heartening to see more than 1700 entries for it. The viewership is also big in Chennai,” said Gopi, who said he had spoken the minister in Tamil Nadu to get the stadium allotted for the event.

The organisers said the Owners Workshop on Wednesday decided to add two more teams to the six the league has now. The Ahmedabad and Guwahati teams will be known as Ahmedabab Smash Masters and Guwahati Eastern Warriors respectively.

New BAI President Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma has already stated the association would take badminton to all the corners of the country. The season will begin from December 22 and will continue till January 14. It will be played in four cities in a rolling format with the final being hosted by Chennai to coincide with Pongal while the rest of the four venues will be taken up next year.

The 11-point format will give way to the 15-point game this year and there will be only a single match a day to attract more viewership on TV and at the stadium.

“This season we have two additional teams and a longer window and we are confident that badminton fans in Chennai will be up for an exciting time. We will also be hosting the final in Chennai and are confident that the way the sport has grown, PBL Season 3 will only grow bigger and better.” said Atul Pande, executive director of SportzLive, marketing partners of PBL.

Chennai Smashers owner Vijay Prabhakar said he would definitely retain PV Sindhu in the team.

“There is no final decision on the retention numbers, whether it is two or three, but we have our plans in place,” said the Chennai owner.

The auction for this year is scheduled to be held in the second week of September.