NEW DELHI: The organisers of the Premier Badminton League Friday cancelled PBL’s sixth edition, making official what was always on the cards in what has been a chaotic year for sports in general.
“We have been lucky to get a window in December-January for the last five years but COVID has turned life upside down. International travel is also banned till December 31 so that is also a problem. We have to think about players safety in these times,” Prasad Mangipudi, MD, SportzLive, the official license holder of the league under the aegis of the Badminton Association of India (BAI), told PTI.
Queried by the newswire as to a possible window in 2021 to hold the sixth edition of what is one of the highest prize money badminton tournaments in the world, Mangipudi had this to say: “… we are hoping to host the event between the Olympics and the end of the last qualifying tournament in May.
“Then we can get some key players, including the Tokyo-bound players, who may take this event as a match practice ahead of the Games as you have guaranteed 5-6 matches in this event.
“But we have to wait and watch, can’t say anything right now. Hoping once we have a vaccine in January-February, things will get clear and we will be able to lock a date.”
The Denmark Open (October) is the only international event that has been held this year since the All England Open in March.
Due to the pandemic, the BWF had re-scheduled the Asian leg to next year with the Asia Open I slated for January 12-17, followed by Asia Open II from January 19-24 and the BWF World Tour Finals from January 27-31.
SportzPower view: The odds of PBL happening in the window suggested are extremely dim, to say the least.
