Badminton Association of India general secretary Anup Narang says that the onus will be on the icon players of Indian badminton in future also to offer a window for the Senior Nationals in its national calendar.
Responding to some complaints by some senior players that by playing the last Nagpur Senior Nationals, Mr. Narang says the players will have a final say in scheduling the Nationals.
The BAI official insisted that the big guns will actually play in three matches if they make it to the final. “So, we don’t feel it is a big issue. But, at the same time, we also believe that unless they feature in the domestic majors, how can we expect the younger talent to grow,” he said. “We will have the Nationals scheduled in such a way that they meet the interests of the players,” he added.
On the PBL, Mr. Narang says that but for the nominal license fee there are no big financial gains for it by conducting the League.
“Yes, the next edition of the PBL will be only after one year in view of the packed 2018 also featuring Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games besides the World Tour events (earlier super series),” he said.
“We strongly believe that women’s doubles should be part of the format as that would mean a complete League featuring all five events,” he said.
“We are glad with the success story of the PBL given the fact that many big foreign players have preferred the PBL to the Chinese League which precedes this,” Mr. Narang said.
The BAI official also felt that there was a strong need to have similar hubs like Hyderabad for badminton in India. “We need to spread the base and we are optimistic of achieving this by having similar academies like Gopi’s Academy across India. There is a need for decentralisation,” he said. “Right now, the national camps are being held in Hyderabad and Bengaluru and we want them to be held in other centres too,” he added.
Narang said that they need to address the issue of lesser crowds at some of the hosting centres of the PBL. “We will definitely look into the reasons for this and take remedial measures,” he said.
