New Delhi: The $1-million Indian Badminton League, an initiative of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) and its ‘Commercial Partner’ Sporty Solutionz sets the ball rolling by announcing the launch of Indian Badminton League School Programme (IBLSP), the biggest school championship for badminton to promote the sport across India.
Under IBLSP, badminton icons like Olympic medalist Saina Nehwal, former All-England champion Pullela Gopichand, CWG doubles gold medalist Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, India Grand Prix winner Parupalli Kashyap and Malaysian Grand Prix champion PV Sindhu will visit school campuses across India, to promote badminton and encourage around five lakh students from more than 120 schools in six different cities. The ‘Shuttle Express’ will offer an incentive of Rs 10 lakh in prize money to the winners in both the boys and girls singles events and the event will be held in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Lucknow and Pune. Besides, the finalists in both the singles categories will also be given an opportunity to train at the world-class Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad.
The ‘Shuttle Express’ will be held in three phases to scout talent and will be an intra-school competition from July 12-14, 2013, while the National Finals will be conducted in Mumbai and beamed LIVE on TV from August 28-31, 2013. The championship will be held in partnership with six schools in the six respective cities as “IBL School Partners” – Genesis Global School, Expressway (Delhi NCR), Indus World School (Hyderabad), La Martiniere Boys (Lucknow), Jamnabai Narsee, Juhu Parle (Mumbai), Symbiosis Primary & Secondary School (Pune) and Jain International School (Bangalore).
The host associations for conducting the inaugural ‘Shuttle Express’ in each city will be Delhi Capital Badminton Association, Andhra Pradesh Badminton Association, UP Badminton Association, Maharashtra Badminton Association, Pune District & Metropolitan Badminton Association and Karnataka Badminton Association respectively.
Speaking on the School Program, Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta, President, BAI and IBL Governing Council Chairman said, “As a former player who benefitted enormously from an active school environment for badminton, I’m confident that Shuttle Express will provide a great platform and opportunity to thousands of badminton-loving children to fulfill their aspirations and motivate them to take the sport as a career.”
Speaking on ‘Shuttle Express’, Indian shuttle queen Saina Nehwal said, “It is nice to see that badminton as a sport is being promoted amongst kids. ‘Shuttle Express’ will not only generate huge interest amongst the young but also give them the opportunity to get their talent recognized.”
Speaking on how ‘Shuttle Express’ will nurture young talent P Gopichand said, “We know that kids today are loaded with talent and Shuttle Express will help bring that out. It’s a platform which will help kids recognize their inner flair. Through this initiative, Shuttle Express can become the powerhouse for badminton in the coming years.”
Doubles icon player Jwala while talking on the initiative being taken by BAI and Sporty Solutionz said, “The Shuttle Express is an extremely good initiative which should spread all over the country in the coming years. I am all geared to go to schools and motivate the kids to win the tournament.”
