After getting an overwhelming response to its Veterans' League, Nagpur District Badminton Association (NDBA) has decided to organise 'Nagpur Badminton League' (NBL) for other age groups. If all goes to plan, the tournament will be organised at state-level too.
For the first time, NDBA conducted the league for veterans. Ten teams participated in it. As per the format of the tournament, there were five matches consisting of men's doubles, men's doubles 100 (at least one player should be 55 ), mixed doubles, men's doubles, and again men's doubles.
Talking to Lokmat Times, senior vice president of Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) and secretary of Nagpur District Badminton Association ( NDBA) Mangesh Kashikar said, “The aim behind organising such leagues is to give maximum exposure to shuttlers. The budding players will get an opportunity to play in the company of experienced players in one team,” he said.
Asked about the combination for NBL he said, “We are planning to include Under-16, Under-18 boys and girls along with senior men and women and veteran players in one team. We are expecting around 15 teams and if all goes well we will do players' auction and each team will have a franchise owner.”
NDBA is planning to hold the league in June and for that they have already started preparation. Kashikar also said initially the tournament will be organised at Vidarbha level. They will urge the MBA president to organise such league at state-level later.
'Juniors will get experience of playing with seniors'
The coaches and players have welcomed the concept. Talking to Lokmat Times RTMNU SAI badminton centre coach Jayendra Dhole said, “The main thing is the junior players will play in the company of seniors in one team. This experience will help them as the team combination will be very interesting. We have found nowadays juniors hardly interact with senior players. Such leagues will offer them an opportunity to interact with seniors,” he said.