Premier Badminton League: Demystifying the tournament touted as shuttle sport's answer to IPL

Pyjama cricket. That was the disparaging epithet employed by the erstwhile doyen of Indian cricket commentators, AFS ‘Bobby’ Talyarkhan, when limited-overs cricket first made its appearance, with proponents sporting coloured clothing instead of the traditional whites.

But Talyarkhan, who hated one-day cricket with a passion, failed to foresee the enormous popularity that the shorter version of the pristine form of cricket enjoyed, even as stands at Test cricketing venues remained sparsely populated, or were even downright barren.

The further evolution of the game into the still more truncated Twenty-20 cricket conclusively showed that, in these days of limited attention spans, anything instant has proved to be far more appealing to both stadium spectators and TV audience than the stately, drawn-out version of the sport.

A direct parallel with T20 cricket can be seen in badminton, as the second version of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) makes its appearance on the opening day of the New Year. The shorter, snappier version of the shuttle sport has been made even tighter and more “instant” this year by a tweaking of the rules to keep a five-match tie to within three hours of telecast time.

Purists and true lovers of the game may decry this shortening of a match to a best-of-three-games of 11 points each, played on the point-per-rally format, rather than the best-of-three-games of 21 points. Last year, when the first version of the revamped league was played, the scoring system employed had been a best-of-three-games, with the first two games being set to 15 points, and the decider set to 11 points, except in the case of an extension into a difference-of-two-points in case of a deadlock at game-point.

The event had originally started out as Indian Badminton League in September 2013, but had ended in a maelstrom of acrimony between the organisers and the Badminton Association of India (BAI). After two years of court battles went by without a sequel being totted out, the BAI put together the same event in January 2016, but with a different name, and a few new rules guaranteed to spice up the proceedings.

The same six teams that competed last year will vie for top honours this time, in a league-cum-knockout system, played over the first fortnight of January. In the league stage, each team plays a tie of five matches with each of the other five teams at venues spread out over the country – Hyderabad, Mumbai, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Delhi, in that order. At the conclusion of the league stage, two semi-final ties will be played on knockout basis, with the winners clashing in the final, all in Delhi.

It is essential to examine the rules minutely, to demystify the tournament. The format remains the same as that employed in previous versions of the league – two men’s singles, one women’s singles, one men’s doubles and one mixed doubles. There is no women’s doubles match, and the ’trump clause’ that was introduced last year with such enormous success continues this year, albeit with a twist.

Each match will be played as the best-of-three games of 11 points on the point-per-rally system. In case both the players are tied at 10-10, they are required to play on for a difference of two points, till a cap of 15 i.e. after 14-14, there is a sudden-death point.

Each player will be allowed one unsuccessful line-call challenge per match; the successful challenges are not counted. In addition, each team is allowed one challenge (successful or unsuccessful) across the course of the five matches in a tie.

The break pattern during a match is also designed to allow for a maximum number of advertising shorts. There will be a 75-second break when the lead scorer reaches 6 points per game; and a 75-second break between games. The maximum amount of time between two matches is five minutes, starting from end of match-point of the previous match to the start of the first point of the next match. The proceedings will, therefore, be as frenetic as T20 cricket!

No player can play more than two matches in a tie. The two men’s singles will have different players participating from each team, i.e. the same men’s player cannot play both the men’s singles. However, in any given tie, the rank of the MS2 player should not be higher than that of the MS1 player.

After each team shares the list of players who will be playing the five matches, and their choice of the trump match, the order of play will be mutually decided by the technical team of PBL and TV channel Star India before each tie (from a neutral perspective) to keep the schedule engaging for viewers and spectators.

It is possible that both the teams may have placed their trump on the same match. In a trump match, a victory gives the team a bonus point, while a loss gives it a negative point. Trump matches are applicable in the league as well as the knockout stage.

A team cannot put the same player in the trump matches proposed by them more than twice in the league stage and once in the knockout stage. However, the participation of a player in a trump match proposed by the opponent will not be counted in this maximum two matches criterion.

The scoring system dictates that victory in a normal match provides the team with a +1 point, while a loss provides 0 points. In a trump match, the team that has set the trump gets +2 points for victory, but -1 point in case of a loss. The opposing team plays this match as a normal match, and will either get +1 or 0 points for win or loss respectively. If both the teams place the trump on the same match, then the scoring of +2 or -1 will apply for both of them.

At the end of the league stage, the top four teams with maximum points proceed to the semi-finals. A draw will be taken after the last match of the league stage, with the top two teams placed at either ends of the draw. The remaining two teams will be drawn by lot to play against these two top teams in the semi-finals.

In the case of two teams ending up with the same points after the league stage, preference will be given to the team which has won their head-to-head tie. There are additional rules to decide the semi-finalists in case of a multiple tie.

If a team is unable to complete all their ties in the league stage, all the results of that team shall be deleted. If a team is unable to complete a particular match in a tie for whatsoever reason, the result of that match shall be considered to be 11- 0, 11-0 for the purpose of deciding ranking in the pool system. Retiring during a match shall be considered to be not completing the match.

Each team shall have a minimum and maximum of 10 players meeting the following criteria: (1) Maximum six international players (2) Two icon players (3) Minimum three female players. It does not necessarily mean that these three criteria are mutually exclusive.

Sadly, a few of the world’s top players have opted out of the tournament, coming as it does so soon after the end of the last season. Thus, we will not get to see Chen Long, Lee Chong Wei or Lin Dan, but the two top Danes, Jan O Jorgensen and Viktor Axelsen will be making their PBL debuts, as will be Korean Son Wan Ho Axelsen; whowon the year-ending BWF Super Series grand finals in Dubai earlier this month, while Jorgensen had beaten world and Olympic champion Chen Long in the final of the China Open in November.

Among the women, world number one Tai Tzu Ying has opted to stay away, as has Thailand’s 2013 world champion Ratchanok Intanon. But world and Olympic champion Carolina Marin has returned to India to make her PBL debut after playing in the IBL in 2013, and Dubai grand finals runner-up Sung Ji Hyun will be there to try and show that her strong year-end performance was no flash in the pan.

All the top Indians will be in the fray; and it will be great for the Indian badminton-lover to watch the likes of Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, Sai Praneeth, Ajay Jayaram, the Verma brothers, et al, taking on the best in the world on their own home turf.

The organisers have tried to put an aggressive spin on the promos of the event, presenting mod, ultra-aggressive faces on punk-haired Srikanth and a screeching Sindhu as the new “baddies” of the sport!