Akhilesh: 'Indian players are doing well in 11-point format'

The PBL is one of the most popular tournaments to employ this shortened 11- point format, which was conceived in an effort to make the sport more spectator and television friendly. The more traditional events are played with the 21-point, best-of-three games format.

Badminton Association of India President, Akhilesh Das Gupta stated that the BAI is likely to start a new league, which will see only Indian players in action.

Badminton Association of India (BAI) president, Akhilesh Das Gupta, is delighted with the 11-point format used in the ongoing Premier Badminton League (PBL).

The PBL is one of the most popular tournaments to employ this shortened format, which was conceived in an effort to make the sport more spectator and television friendly. The more traditional events are played with the 21-point, best-of-three games format.

“The Badminton World Federation (BWF) wants the member nations to trial the 11-point, best-of-five games format. Because of time constraints and television viewership concerns, we decided to use the 11-point, best-of-three games format in the PBL. The BAI technical staff, national coach Gopichand and I are very happy to see that Indian players have been doing very well in this 11-point system,” Akhilesh said here.

Akhilesh added that discussions are on to launch new PBL teams from Ahmedabad and Jammu and Kashmir. He stated that the BAI is likely to start a new league, which will see only Indian players in action.

“This domestic league will be separate from the senior Nationals. All the top Indian players, from Saina Nehwal to P.V. Sindhu, will be asked to compete. We will make an announcement on this soon,” he said.

He confirmed that the BAI has recruited seven foreign coaches. “They should start their service next month. The seven coaches will work in cities like Bengaluru, Lucknow and Hyderabad. We might appoint a few coaches for the North-East region as there is a lot of talent in States there,” he said.

Akhilesh explained that the BAI cannot be expected to build their own national training centres.“BAI is not rich enough to provide complete infrastructure. We have to depend on State bodies, Sports Authority of India, colleges or private entities for facilities. Once the infrastructure is in place, we can send our best players and coaches there,” he said.