CHENNAI: Before the press conference announcing the official launch of the 2018 edition of the Pro Badminton League (PBL), a few scribes were informed that Chennai would finally be getting a taste of the action. Parts of the league were supposed to be held at the city’s Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium in 2016 as well as 2017, but uncertainities meant they were moved out.
“This time it won’t be like that,” said some of the organisers. “In fact, Chennai will be getting the big matches... the semifinals and finals.” That was expected. Chennai Smashers, on account of being defending champions, would get to host it anyway. By the time the press conference ended, there was yet to be an official confirmation that Chennai would indeed get to host the semifinals and finals. “I think we are very hopeful of conducting the event (in Chennai) this year,” Atul Pande, executive director of SportzLive, which owns the league’s rights, said.
A refresher course – Smashers is owned by Vijay Prabhakaran, son of DMDK founder, Vijaykanth. And DMDK and ADMK, the ruling government, haven’t seen eye to eye on a few issues. While Vijay concedes 2017 was beset by big problems from the start (cyclone Vardha, J Jayalalithaa’s death and themselves approaching SDAT at the last minute), he is hopeful this time around. “We have given ourselves four months to try and bring it here. We will begin talking to SDAT soon enough.”
PBL is also desperate to get the league to Chennai because of the game’s interest. “We have fixed the dates in such a way that Chennai will host matches on January 12, 13 (semifinals) and 14 (final). January 14 being pongal, we think could be a special day for fans,” Pande said. Is SDAT listening? Sindhu to stay Meanwhile, Smashers will retain Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu. “We have decided to keep Sindhu and Chris Adcock,” Vijay said. “Sindhu for obvious reasons and Chris because of the passion he has for Chennai. He personally told me ‘please keep me’. He is so loyal and also fights for each and every point.”