CHENNAI: Celebrity Badminton League (CBL), India’s first Sportainment property that was launched in 2017, is back with its second edition. It was launched on Wednesday by its founding team — Hemachandran L, Raghuraman Loganathan, and Praveen J. “CBL’s vision is to build a strong and innovative platform for film celebrities, to identify their talent in the sport and celebrate the spirit of sportsmanship in them,” said, Hemachandran, founder, CBL, during the launch.
Similar to 2017’s format, CBL will have four teams — Gokulam Chennai Rockers (Kollywood), Kerala Royals (Mollywood), Tollywood Thunders and Karnataka Warriors (Sandalwood), which will be led by Baiju Gopalan, vice chairman, Gokulam, Ranjit Karunakaran, chairman, EAK group, Nandini Vijay, founder, Global Institute of Gaming and Animation and Rajiv Talreja, business coach and Bhakthi Sangavi Talreja, entrepreneur, respectively.
“All the franchise owners are passionate about sports. They are successful entrepreneurs who have seen a huge potential in the sportainment industry,” said Hemachandran. A new initiative — ‘Next Gen Championships Hunt’, a talent hunt — aims to identify and nurture aspirants in becoming professional badminton players, was also launched. Aditya Elango, co-founder, Tournament OS, a sports organisation that digitally manages tournaments, who is joining hands with the CBL for the hunt, shared, “We want to identify sportsmen who have the potential to win at the Olympics.”
The talent hunt is being flagged off as a pilot project and tournaments will be organised across three cities in Tamil Nadu. “We are looking to schedule the tournament in the third week of February,” he added. The matches will be digitised and using the data analytics, four players from the talent hunt will get an opportunity to play with the celebrities in the league. “We’ll be sponsoring these players. They’ll surely be on top in the next five years,” said Hemachandran. The categories include men’s doubles, men’s singles, women’s doubles, women’s singles and mixed doubles. “Unlike most leagues where women are not given a chance to play and showcase their talent, CBL will focus on women players,” added Hemachandran. Celebrity Badminton League will be held on Feb 25 from 8 am onwards at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium