The much-awaited player auction for the high-profile Indian Badminton League (IBL) to be held across six cities from August 14-31 will be held on June 30.
A closed-door “progress meeting” among the Badminton Association of India officials, officials from the six state associations that will help in the conduct of the League and Sporty Solutionz, the company in charge the IBL, was held in New Delhi on Tuesday. The auction is slated to be held in the national capital.
The meeting was held to discuss ways of going about and also to get the necessary permissions from various authorities for the smooth conduct of the million-dollar League that is expected to attract some of the top international stars along with the leading shuttlers from India.
There was a lot of uncertainty about the conduct of the IBL until recently because it has been postponed a couple of times. Even some of its governing council members were unsure of the developments. Tuesday’s meeting would have cleared any doubt if the League would take place at all.
Akhilesh Das Gupta, chairman of the IBL governing council, told dna on Tuesday that the “player auction will be held on June 30”. He added that “IBL is very much on from August 14-31 and the teams have been finalised, just that the owners will be announced shortly by Sporty Solutionz.”
Gupta added that while some of the leading players from overseas have agreed to play, a written confirmation from all the top players is being taken.
A BAI source added that “things have to move fast now. There is hardly one-and-a-half month from the date of auction to the start of IBL”.
Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore and Lucknow are the six cities that will feature in the first edition of IBL. The owners of these teams — Mumbai Masters (Mumbai), Pune Vijetas (Pune), Hyderabad Hotshots (Hyderabad), Rajdhani Smashers (Delhi), Karnataka Kings (Bangalore) and Lucknow Warriors (Lucknow) — will be revealed this month end, said the source.
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