PBL 2017: Full schedule, when and where to watch, live coverage on TV, online streaming

Hyderabad will host the opening match of the Premier Badminton League’s (PBL) second edition which starts on 1 January, while the final will be held in New Delhi on 14 January, it has been announced. [caption id=“attachment_3179552” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The PBL logo. Image credit: pbl-india.com[/caption] After two days of action in Hyderabad, National Sports Club of India Mumbai and Babu Banarasi Das Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy will host the second and third leg respectively. Koramangala Indoor Stadium will host the Bengaluru leg as well as be the home stadium of Chennai Smashers. Chennai has not been included in the schedule this year. “We were very keen to extend PBL to Chennai this year, as it is one of the key markets for badminton in India. But unfortunately we have not been able to do it this year and we hope that from next year, Chennai and Tamil Nadu will become one of the key stops for PBL in the calendar,” PBL’s promoter SportzLive Managing Director Atul Pande said in a release. The event features six teams vying for a prize purse of Rs 6 crore and will see Hyderabad Hunters and Chennai Smashers kick off the league at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. The tie is being billed as the clash of titans with 2016 Olympic champion Carolina Marin (Hyderabad Hunters) and Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu (Chennai Smashers) going against each other on the opening day. Other star players include Parupalli Kashyap and B Sumeeth Reddy (Chennai Smashers), Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth (Awadhe Warriors), Jwala Gutta (Delhi Acers), Ajay Jayaram (Mumbai Rockets), Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma (Hyderabad Hunters), Saurabh Verma (Bengaluru Blasters). FULL SCHEDULE:  1 January: Hyderabad Hunters vs Chennai Smashers, Bengaluru Blasters vs Delhi Acers 2 January: Awadhe Warriors vs Hyderabad Hunters 3 January: Bengaluru Blasters vs Chennai Smashers, Delhi Acers vs Mumbai Rockets 4 January: Hyderabad Hunters vs Mumbai Rockets 5 January: Awadhe Warriors vs Delhi Acers 6 January: Awadhe Warriors vs Mumbai Rockets 7 January: Bengaluru Blasters vs Hyderabad Hunters 8 January: Delhi Acers vs Chennai Smashers 9 January: Awadhe Warriors vs Bengaluru Blasters 10 January: Mumbai Rockets vs Chennai Smashers 11 January: Awadhe Warriors vs Chennai Smashers 12 January: Delhi Acers vs Hyderabad Hunters 13 January: Semi-final 1 – Awadhe Warriors vs Chennai Smashers Semi-final 2 – Mumbai Rockets vs Hyderabad Hunters 14 January: Final – Chennai Smashers vs Mumbai Rockets Where to watch The matches will be telecast on the channels Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 3 as well as in their HD versions. For those who do not have access to a television, one can simply log on to Hotstar to catch all the action online. With inputs from IANS