Tamil Nadu Badminton League begins on Saturday

Chennai: After its success last year, the second edition of the Tamil Nadu Badminton League will be held from June 8 to 16 with top 15 internationals confirming participation in it.

Addressing the media here today, Badminton Association India Treasurer Ashok Bajaj said, "The event had helped youngsters from Tamil Nadu to rub shoulders with prominent foreign players and learnt a lot from them.

"Based on the feedback from last year`s success, we decided to host the event this year too offering a total prize fund of Rs 9 lakhs," he said.

The Premier Badminton Extravaganza will involve six teams to compete for the TNBL Cup.

"This time we have confirmed participation of 15 international players from as many as 8 countries with 3 of the players having represented their nations at London Olympics, making this years competition bigger than 2012," Bajaj said.

The tournament, which was launched on experimental basis last year, has become bigger this time with the participation of international stars, offering some exciting contests for the aficionados of badminton.

Six teams -- Chennai Singams, Covai Panthers, Dazzle Force, Erode Eagles, Jhaver Smashers, Ed6 Skillangels -- will play each other on a league basis with matches involving singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

Top four would qualify for the semifinals.

Apart from players from India, shuttlers from Belgium, New Zealand, Australia, US, Mauritius, Uganda and South Africa would be seen in action in the week-long event that offers an attractive purse of Rs 2.5 lakh for the winners and Rs 1.5 lakh for the runners-up.

The Olympians in the fray included Chetan Anand of India, South Africa number one Wiaan Viljoen and Ekiring Edwin of Uganda.