The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Prakash proposes champions league

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Sunday, Oct 15, 2006
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Sport - Badminton

Prakash proposes champions league

Stan Rayan

KOCHI: A few years ago, there was a feeling that the juniors were not pushing the seniors in Indian badminton. But now, there's a happy change. The charge of the junior brigade is so strong these days that the seniors are forever on their toes.

"This is a very nice situation to have. There's almost a crowd at the top. So, I think it's time we start something like the masters league, a sort of champions league. This is the right time to have it," Prakash Padukone told The Hindu here on Friday evening.

"We can have a league for the 16 best male players in the country, divide them into four groups and then have a knockout or league round for the four group toppers. This way, we will see some exciting badminton because we will have the best players playing each other unlike the regular tournaments where matches are often one-sided. It will be good for the spectators too and since it's a league, players will have more experience playing each other," said the badminton great who was in Kochi for the inauguration of the Peak Telecom inter-collegiate badminton tournament organised by the Engineers Club here.

"I've been thinking about this for the last six months, so next year, we can try this out. It will be a real feast. We should have attractive prize-money too, but not ranking points since it's a close circuit, not open to all players."

Apart from the 16 men, we can have eight women in singles, eight men's pairs in doubles and four teams in the other doubles. So, around fifty players will be involved, he said.

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