Premier Badminton League

IBL 2013 auctions

The first season auctions were scheduled on 30 June 2013 which were postponed to 19 July 2013 and again postponed to 22 July 2013.^[3] The 2013 auctions were held in Delhi ^[4] and were conducted by International Auctioneer Bob Hayton. The highest paid players were the Malaysian Lee Chong Wei, sold for $135,000 to Mumbai Masters and Indian Saina Nehwal who went to Hyderabad Hotshots for $120,000. The auction itself was not short of controversy. The base price of Indian marquee players, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa were halved from USD 50,000 to USD 25,000, without the players' notice.^[5] The rules dictated that each team will have not less than 10 players and not more than 11, including a junior player and four foreign players. At least four players (three men and a woman) must be nominated for a match. The ceiling on foreign players in a contest is three while no individual plays over two matches.^[6] Chinese players did not take part in the inaugural Indian Badminton League because clash with their national games.^[7]

PBL Format

PBL is based on the Sudirman Cup format. But PBL’s major difference would be an additional men’s singles match instead of the women’s doubles. So a typical face-off would have two men’s, one women’s singles, one men’s doubles, and one mixed doubles matches played back-to-back. The entire engagement is expected to last about three hours.In the group stage, all five matches in a contest must be completed, even if a team wins the first three. In the knockout phase, the team winning the first three advances to the next stage and need not play the remaining two. In a round-robin format, each team plays the other in a league spread across six cities.^[6]

Seasons

First Season

Indian badminton league started in 2013. The first season was scheduled from 14 August 2013 to 31 August 2013. Hyderabad Hotshots beat Awadhe Warriors in the final by three games to one at Mumbai's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium. In round robin 15 matches were scheduled across six Indian cities, viz. Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Cities of Delhi, Lucknow, and Pune were host for three matches each while Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad were host for two matches each in the group stage. First semi-final was played at Hyderabad's Gachibowli Indoor Stadium while the second was played at Bangalore's Kanteerava Indoor Stadium. The final was scheduled at Mumbai at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium

Second Season

The Indian Badminton League has hit a legal roadblock after its commercial partners Sporty Solutionz went to court trying to protect its Intellectual Property Rights. The IBL started in 2013 but ran into trouble due to various issues. The second edition of the league has been scheduled for 2nd January to 16th January next year.(Sahara India Retain Lucknow Franchise) Having severed its relationship with its commercial partners, next year's IBL will be hosted by the national federation - Badminton Association of India as Premier Badminton League. Unhappy Sporty Solutionz has now gone to Delhi High Court against BAI.(All the Latest Badminton Updates) "We on behalf of our clients, M/s Sporty Solutionz Pvt Ltd have applied for the protection of Intellectual Property Rights of our clients. We have invested heavily to build the brand IBL. This is also associated with our goodwill. "We have pleaded in the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi to restrict any other party from using the name, logo, title or any Intellectual Property associated with Brand Indian Badminton League or IBL," said the Sporty Solutionz Counsel Sanjeev Kumar in a statement. "BAI has the experience of holding much bigger events such as Thomas and Uber Cup, Super Series event and World Championship and so we decided to do it on our own from this year to ensure the longevity of the tournament. We will be back with a bang next year," BAI president Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta said on Thursday. The IBL had its share of delays with the first auctions going through multiple postponements from June 30, 2013 to July 19, 2013 to finally being conducted on July 22. Similarly, the second edition was initially scheduled from September-October 2014 and then postponed to January-February 2015, before finally scheduling it in first fortnight of January 2016^[8]