Visakhapatnam to host Andhra Badminton League matches

Visakhapatnam: The city will be hosting the inaugural matches of the second edition of Andhra Badminton League (ABL), which will be conducted from January 20 to 28 in eight places in the state, on the lines of Premier Badminton League (PBL). 

Six teams- Amaravati Acers, Synergies Vizag Smashers, LKSA Prakasam Bulls, VZM Steel Giants, Guntur Club Pioneers and Godavari Guns will be participating in the league. Over 40 badminton players, who played national and international events, were selected for the ABL by bidding with a base price of Rs 10,000 recently. Prize money for the league is Rs 10 lakh and players were chosen on auction with Rs 15 lakh.

Speaking on this occasion, the Secretary of Visakhapatnam District Badminton Association (VDBA) and Joint Secretary of AP Badminton Association, Chukka Srinivasa Rao, said that matches would be held at the Swarnabharathi Indoor Stadium (inauguration and matches) in Vizag city on January 20, Vizianagaram on January 21, Kothapeta on January 22, Vijayawada on January 23, Guntur on January 24, Ongole on January 25, Nellore on January 26 and finals of ABL would be held at Kurnool on January 28.  

Rajya Sabha member TG Venkatesh’s son and industrialist TGV Bharath is the owner of ABL (franchisee) and ABL is the perfect mix of international, national and state-level players sparring against each other in a pure franchise based scenario. 

Vizag-based team Synergies Vizag Smashers belongs to corporate group Synergies and the team comprising M Tanishq, K Sai Pavan, D Chandra Kumar, R Aneeth Kumar, Chandra Jith Patnaik, G Meghana and KRK Charith.  

Players were selected by bidding from a base price of Rs 10,000 to the highest price of Rs1.05 lakh. Shuttler K Nanda Gopal sold for Rs 1.05 lakh to Godavari Guns in highest bid followed by T Hema Nagendra Babu for Rs 90,000 to VZM Steel Giants and M Kanishq was sold for Rs 75,000 to Guntur Club Pioneers.  

“Godavari Guns lifted the title of the first edition of ABL by beating Synergies Vizag Smashers and we are hoping that Vizag team will lift the title this year as the team is balanced,” said owner of the team Movva Sekhar.  The composition of a tie is men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, junior boy’s singles and mixed doubles.