NEW DELHI: The Badminton Association of India (BAI) president Himanta Biswa Sarma has asserted that this season’s Premier Badminton League (PBL), which is scheduled from December 23, will take place “as per the announced and scheduled date”.
In a letter to all franchise owners including Bengaluru Blasters, who raised doubts regarding court cases, Sarma clarified: “I would like to share with you that I have personally written to all the stakeholders in the PBL, including the team owners, PBL’s official license holders SportzLive, official broadcasters Star Sports and all the sponsors. They are fully behind BAI and we are all moving smoothly towards the world’s richest badminton league.”
In the letter, Sarma further noted: “Over the last few days, a number of rumours are being spread about the Premier Badminton League. I would urge you to ignore them as there is no element of truth in them. I must stress that PBL is going to be held as per announced and scheduled dates and there is no truth in any of the rumours with respect to the uncertainty regarding the hosting of the League.”
Sarma’s latter came after the owners of the Bengaluru Blasters franchise wrote a letter to BAI’s commercial partners Sportzlive, seeking clarifications on the legal status of the league in the light of the case pending in Delhi High Court and also whether all teams were paying the franchisee fee.
For the record, BAI, under former president late Akhilesh Das Gupta, had terminated the contract with Sporty Solutionz after the first edition of the Indian Badminton League in 2013.
The BAI then re-badged the tournament as ‘Premier Badminton League’ after joining hands with new commercial partners SportzLive in 2016.
Sporty filed a case at the Delhi High Court claiming that BAI had violated the terms of contract and sought compensation.
Following an arbitration process, the termination was upheld, but Sporty was awarded compensation of Rs25 million after the BAI was deemed not to have followed proper procedure.
Sporty, however, challenged that verdict in the Delhi High Court and sought a stay on the PBL till the issue is settled. The hearing of the case is scheduled for December 11.
Meanwhile, SportzLive managing director Atul Pande says PBL will go ahead as planned and the court case will have no bearing on the league. “Our property is PBL which is a separate contract awarded by BAI. So the court case between BAI and Sporty Solutionz will have no bearing on the league and it will go ahead as planne,” Pande told PTI.
Speaking to Times of India, Pande further said: “We would like to point out that Sportzlive has the rights for not only all the domestic badminton leagues but also for any other Asian league… But we are willing to go out of our way to help BAI resolve any outstanding issues.”
