MUMBAI: Star Sports, broadscast partner of the Premier Badminton League, is also the title sponsor this year for the PBL, which tipped off in Chennai Monday with the world’s top shuttlers squaring off in India’s largest badminton tournament.
It was in 2016 when India’s lead sportscaster last took up the title sponsor role and the network’s brand positioning for this edition of the PBL does not entail any additional financial commitments, SportzPower is given to understand.
It bears noting that with the slowdown in the Indian economy, add to the fact that telecom major Vodafone, title partner for the previous three editions, is currently facing an existential crisis, credit is due to PBL commercial rights holder Sportzlive for ensuring that the 2020 edition of the high profile tournament, being held from January 20 to February 9 in three venues – Chennai, Lucknow and Hyderabad – went ahead without a hitch.
Indian shuttlers B Sai Praneeth, Lakshya Sen, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were present along with Olympic Silver medallist Christinna Pedersen, former World No. 9 Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk and PBL 5’s youngest player 15-year-old S Sankar Muthusamy at the official trophy unveiling in Chennai on Monday ahead of the 21-day event.
“This league has played a major role in making badminton even more popular and has taken the sport to greater heights. We hope to play some amazing matches over the next few days here in Chennai and we hope the fans will enjoy it once again,” said defending champions Bengaluru Raptors’ Sai Praneeth, who clinched a highly-coveted World Championships Bronze medal in a memorable season last year.
Christinna Pedersen will be making her comeback to the league with the Awadhe Warriors. The Danish doubles star, who has multiple World Championships medals to her name, will be making her PBL outing for the third time and is excited to return to India.
“India feels like a second home. We, Danish players, always look forward to coming back to PBL, which, I believe is the world’s strongest league. All the teams this time look pretty strong and I am looking forward to playing some exciting matches in the next few days,” said the Danish shuttle queen, who has reached the pinnacle of world rankings in mixed doubles.
Lakshya and Satwik, who will be part of Chennai Superstarz, believe the league will provide platform to improve their game and the much-needed exposure to young shuttlers. Doubles star Rankireddy added that PBL will also help to give a lot of match play with elite shuttlers which will be crucial with the Tokyo Olympics coming up later in the year.
The fifth season of the PBL, which is organised by Sportzlive under the aegis of Badminton Association of India (BAI), is being headlined by world champion PV Sindhu and former World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying as five Olympic medallists and 15 World Championships medallists will look to mesmerize fans with their top skills.
“With a high quality of competition, the PBL has established itself as a favourite not only among Indian players but also among foreign shuttlers who look forward to playing every year. The faith that the world’s top shuttlers has shown in the league time and again itself makes PBL a roaring success,” said Prasad Mangipudi, executive director, SportzLive.
Tanongsak, who has fond memories of guiding the Chennai franchise to the title in the second season, will be the men’s singles mainstay for the North Eastern Warriors for a second consecutive season. With a robust line-up, the Thai star is looking forward to a confident show from his team.
Seven teams – Awadhe Warriors, Bengaluru Raptors, Mumbai Rockets, Hyderabad Hunters, Chennai Superstarz, North Eastern Warriors and Pune 7 Aces – will slug it out for a prize of Rs 60 million.
PBL season 5 is being telecast live on Star Sports and streamed live on Hotstar.
