Indian Badminton League auction: delicate task for team owners

World No.1 Lee Chong Wei will be one of the top draws at the auction.

The auction of the Indian Badminton League will take place shortly, and we should know the compositions of the teams and their relative strengths. The most high profile names up for auction are Lee Chong Wei and Saina Nehwal, while the other icon players are PV Sindhu, Ashwini Ponnappa, Jwala Gutta and P Kashyap. All of them command a base price of USD 50,000. Each of the six teams are required to have one icon player, which can be disconcerting to some teams because the six icon players are not evenly matched.

With the cap at USD 275,000, teams must be careful at not spending too much on their singles players, which will mean two weak doubles pairs. Generally speaking, all the top foreigners are a better buy in doubles than most of the top Indians, so the teams will have to save their purse until the bids begin for the doubles.

Each team can have a total of 11 players, including four foreigners and one local player. The teams will have to field two men’s singles, two men’s doubles and one mixed doubles, keeping three stand-bys and one local player. Most teams will thus go for players who are competent in singles and doubles, such as the Russian giant Vladimir Ivanov. Expect some of the Indian doubles players, such as Tarun Kona, Akshay Dewalkar and Pradnya Gadre to command a premium price.

Apart from Lee Chong Wei, the list of foreigners includes a few Danes, Indonesians, Thais, Japanese and Malaysians. The only Chinese are those who retired: Zheng Bo (doubles) and Bao Chunlai (singles). What will add to the complexity is that many foreigners are apparently available only from July 17^th to 24^th. With the IBL following the World Championships, team owners must be crossing their fingers that their star players will be fit and motivated enough to perform through the next fortnight.

Here is the list (subject to a few minor changes):

Men’s Singles: Lee Chong Wei, P Kashyap, Kenichi Tago, Nguyen Tien Minh, Marc Zwiebler, Chong Wei Feng, Hu Yun, K Srikanth, Tommy Sugiarto, Ajay Jayaram, Jan O Jorgensen, Wong Wing Ki, Sai Praneeth, Donysius Hayom Rumbaka, Tanongsak, Sourabh Verma, Boonsak Ponsana, Guru Sai Dutt, Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Daren Liew, Bao Chunlai, Anand Pawar, Rajiv Ouseph, Vladimir Ivanov, Prannoy HS, Niluka Karunaratne, Nandagopal K, Arvind Bhat, Chetan Anand, Scott Evans, Nguyen Hoang Nam, Anup Sridhar, Shreyansh Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Singh, Pratul Joshi, Aditya Prakash, Suraj RN, Velavan V, Rohit Yadav, Oscar Bansal, Love Kumar, Rohan Castelino, Hirak Jyoti Neog, Subhankar Dey

Women’s Singles: Saina Nehwal, Ratchanok Intanon, Juliane Schenk, Tai Tzu Ying, Tine Baun, Sapsiree Taerattanachai, PV Sindhu, Lindaweni Fanetri, Porntip B, Minatsu Mitani, Yip Pui Yin, Petya Nedelcheva, Nichaon Jindapon, Arundhati Pantwane, Aprilla Yuswandari, Carolina Marin, Tsz Ka Chan, Tanvi Lad, Thulasi PC, Sayali Gokhale, Neha Pandit, Riya Pillai, Saili Rane, Trupti Murgunde, Sashina Vigneswaran, Kristy Gilmour, Beatriz Corrales, Sanyogita Ghorpade, Mohita Sahdev, Shehshadri Sanyal, Sneha Santhilal, Rasika Raje, Anita Ohlan, Shruti Mundada, Ruthvika Shivani, Nisha Karamchand, Sonal More, Kanthi Visalakshi

Men’s Doubles: Carsten Mogensen, Mathias Boe, Ryan Agung Saputra, Tan Boon Heong, Koo Kien Keat, Tan Wee Kiong, Vladimir Ivanov, Bodin Issara, Maneepong Jongjit, How Thien Hoon, Ingo Kindervater, Johannes Schoettler, Yonathan Dasuki, Hendra Gunawan, Zheng Bo, Pranav Chopra, Akshay Dewalkar, Alwin Francis, Diju V, Arun Vishnu, Tarun Kona, Sumeeth Reddy, Manu Attri, Vineeth Manuel, Guruprasad D, Surender Rathee, Shivam Sharma, Rupesh Kumar, Sanave Thomas, Neeraj Vashisht

Mixed Doubles (Male): Markis Kido, Joachim Fischer, Fran Kurniawan, Chan Peng Soon, Sudket Prapakamol, Robert Mateusiak, Tarun Kona, Pranav Chopra, Akshay Dewalkar, Diju V, Arun Vishnu, Manu Attri

Mixed Doubles (Female): Christinna Pedersen, Kamillla Rytter Juhl, Pia Bernadeth, Liu Ying Goh, Shendy Puspa Irawati, Saralee Thoungthongkam, Nadiezda Zieba, Sapsiree T, Ashwini Ponnappa, Jwala Gutta, Aparna Balan, Juhi Dewangan, Petya Nedelcheva, Sikki Reddy, Varsha Belawadi, Nischitha GM, Suneri K, Pramada V, Arathi Sara Sunil, Meghana J, Pradnya Gadre, Prajakta Sawant, Maneesha K.