Saina, PV Sindhu to go under hammer

Over 100 top badminton stars, including Olympic champion Carolina Marin and Rio silver medallist P.V. Sindhu, will be up for grabs at the players’ auction for the lucrative Premier Badminton League Season 2 here on Wednesday.

Olympic bronze winner Viktor Axelsen of Denmark will also be among the 16 Olympic medallists, who have confirmed their participation at the second edition of the event to be held from January 1 to 14.

The PBL is the revamped edition of the Indian Badminton League. Top players from China and Japan, however, will give the event a miss as they will be competing in their respective national tournaments.

As many as three men’s singles players, including Axelsen, Jan O. Jorgensen of Denmark and Sun Won Ho of Korea, and four women’s singles players, including Marin, Sindhu, former world no. 1 Saina Nehwal and Sung Ji Hyun of Korea, have been clubbed in the top bracket.

The 15-day league will see six teams: Delhi Acers, Mumbai Rockets, Chennai Smashers, Hyderabad Hunters, Awadhe Warriors and Bangalore Blasters (earlier Bangalore Top Guns) battle for a total prize purse of `6 crore, making it the highest prize money badminton tournament in the world.

The six-team strong competition will be held at Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Lucknow.

Each franchise will splash out Rs 1.93 crore to build their team, with the individual price for top players likely to go up to Rs 65 lakhs for the two-week league.

All available players will go under the hammer but teams have the option of retaining three players by invoking the Right to Match option and paying up the final bid price.