The first-ever auction of players in India’s newest professional sporting league — The Indian Badminton League (IBL) — saw its fair share of the action on Monday.

Men’s world number one player Lee Chong Wie was bought by Mumbai Masters, which is owned by a consortium led by actor Nagarjuna, Sunil Gavaskar and V. Chamundeswaranath for $135,000 (over Rs 80 lakh), which was nearly three times his base price of $50,000 (Rs 29.6 lakh).

The most valued female player was Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal, who was bought by Hyderabad Hotshots, which is owned by PVP Ventures for $1,20,000 (Rs 71 lakh). Prasad V Potluri, Chairman and Managing Director of PVP Ventures, said that Saina will inspire the youngsters in the team.

Both of them are among the six icon players bought by the six franchises of the Indian Badminton League. Other icon players included P.V. Sindhu who was sold to Sahara-owned Awadh Warriors (Lucknow Warriors) for $80,000 (Rs 47 lakh) while P. Kashyap which was bagged by BOP Group-owned Banga Beats for $75,000 (Rs 44.5 lakh).

Among the international names, Germany’s Juliane Schenk, who saw competitive bidding by the team owners, was sold to Mohit Burman-owned Pune Pistons for $90,000.

Positive sign

Akhilesh Das Gupta, Badminton Association of India President, said, “A generous amount has been spent on Indian players by the franchisees, which is a very positive sign for the Indian players and the sport as a whole. Money is pouring in for Indian players, as other than auction money, they would also be getting endorsement deals.” Each of the franchisees had a war chest of about $2,75,000 (Rs 1.6 crore) to buy 10 players for their team. The tournament will begin from August 14 and will be played across the six franchise cities till August 31. The first match will be in Delhi and the final in Mumbai. The tournament will be aired live on ESPN in India and will also be telecast in 100 countries through international broadcast deals.

Team owners are bullish about the league. Mohit Burman, who owns Pune Pistons, said, “I have been investing in sports such as cricket and hockey and I believe any league that has world specialists coming in to play has a chance of being successful. Barring the Chinese, all the top players are coming to play in the IBL. We have a good team in place and we will look out for sponsors.”

Each team is expected to invest about Rs 7-10 crore on their teams in the first year.

Huge appeal

Added Banga Beats and BOP Group’s Amit Mavi, “Badminton is a game watched not only in Asia but also in Europe, and has a huge appeal. We believe it will promote the sport and help us build our brand.”

Ashish Chadha, CEO Sporty Solutionz, the commercial partner for IBL, believes that the six franchises are expected to invest nearly Rs 100-150 crore in the game in the next 10 years. He said that the league is in talks with potential brands for sponsorships and these revenues will go into the central pool to be shared among the franchisees. Franchisees will get a share of the broadcast rights, league level sponsorships, besides a portion of the gate collections and in-stadia sponsorship. They will also rope in sponsors for their teams.

>meenakshi.v@thehindu.co.in

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