By Suhas Nayse
Nagpur: After a long wait and overcoming several hurdles, the second edition of the Indian Badminton League (IBL) will be held in January, 2016, according to Badminton Association of India (BAI) president Akhilesh Dasgupta on Saturday.
“Yes, the second edition of IBL will be held in January. I cannot announce the exact dates now but it will most probably held in the second and third week of January. We will announce all the details in a press conference soon,” said Dasgupta.
The first edition of IBL was held in 2013 and it was a huge success. However, because of some serious problems between BAI and Sporty Solutionz – the event management company of the IBL – it could not be held after that, much to the disappointment of the top Indian players. The BAI has terminated the contract with Sporty and now decided to hold the IBL on their own. Sources said they already received an overwhelming response from several top-event management companies including IMG Reliance.
The Rio Olympics will be held next year and there is a hot race going on among the players to seal their respective berths for the mega event. In that case there is a question mark on their participation in the IBL in case it happens before Olympics.
However, Dasgupta is confident that all top players of the world will take part. “The BAI representative had gone to Beijing recently during the World Championship. Our person had a talk with almost all the top players of the world and got a positive feedback. We are now confident that majority of premier players will participate in the IBL,” Dasgupta said. There is no major international badminton tournament between January 1 and 18 and BAI is targeting that open window to hold the IBL.
BAI’s vice-president Pradeep Gandhe also confirmed the IBL development. “We are confident of organizing the IBL early next year. Our president Dasgupta is determined to conduct the event on its own and the entire executive committee has supported his bold move. In men’s singles and women’s singles, we have several players in the world’s top-20. If we get quality doubles players from the foreign countries, the IBL will be a grand success,” said Gandhe.
–TNN/Indiatimes
