Offering hefty sums to players, the million-dollar league has attracted players from all corners of the world. The 18-day extravaganza, which will be loaded with exhilarating badminton action as well as loads of entertainment of the Bollywood kind, is expected to strike the right chord with spectators.
When Hyderabad hosted the World Championships a few years back, spectators mostly chose to stay away. But maybe because of the 'Saina Effect', people were jostling for space to get a glimpse of their favourite shuttlers at the Commonwealth Games finals in New Delhi. Saina and the glamourous duo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won the titles, much to the delight of the packed house.
Saina followed up that splendid performance with a dozen more international titles, including several prestigious Super Series Premier titles, and the popularity of the game soared. Chief coach Pullela Gopichand too began producing more players like Sindhu, Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap and Sai Praneeth, to name but a few. It was then that the Badminton of Association of India decided to derive the benefits.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Badminton Association successfully conducted the Maharashtra Badminton League, offering more food for thought to the national body. The moment appeared opportune after Saina's bronze at the Olympics, prompting BAI president Akhilesh Das Gupta to hunt for an event manager who could handle the league.
In Ashish Chadha, a former shuttler and journalist, they found the right guy to take the idea forward. Though he faced initial blues and endured severe hurdles, Chadha, through his Sporty Solutionz, managed to accumulate huge sums from sponsors.
Initially there were about 29 bids for the six teams and IBL picked six owners, which includes heavyweights like Sahara, PVP Ventures, Krissh Group and Dabur. Celebrities like Nagarjuna, Sunil Gavaskar and Chamundesawaranath bought the Mumbai team.
Six franchises bought the teams for a period of 10 years and Gupta says that all of them will break even within two years. "We never thought we would get such overwhelming response from the sponsors and from the fans. Our franchises are happy and we are confident that they will break even in two years. IBL has made our players quite rich and we are confident that it will get better," Gupta said.
The absence of Chinese, Koreans and super stars like newly-crowned world champion Ratchanok Intanon has, however, robbed the league of some sheen.
World No.1 Lee Chong Wei might be a doubtful starter but the Indian fans are not bothered. For them, the first-ever competitive match between Saina and teen sensation PV Sindhu is the one to watch out for.
The six-team league will start with the showdown between Krrish Delhi Smashers and Pune Pistons.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/mkqlm2n
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