Is controversy good for Indian Badminton League?
Conceived along the lines of the cash-rich Indian Premier League, Indian Badminton League seems to be living up to the controversy tag that it's elder and more famous 'brother', IPL has garnered.
If S Sreesanth started the trend in the first edition of IPL with the 'slap gate' episode, IBL has to thank Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta who took up arms against the organisers after their base price was slashed with the cancellation of women's doubles singles.
But the controversies continue to mar IBL as loopholes in its auctions and management continue to disgruntle Indian and foreign players.
Mathias Boe, who went unsold in the auctions, hit back at the IBL organisers after his base price was slashed. After the snub, Boe said he "will never set feet in India again or support any events from its side.”
But the lure of being part of such a campaign made him change his decision. And Boe, with his good performance for Awadhe Warriors, could hope for a better price if auctions are held in the future again.
In IPL, the ego of the cricketers was fed to with billion dollars contracts. But, unfortunately, IBL seems to have ignored this basic rule of keeping the giants happy.
During the first edition of IPL, cricketing giants, who were although out of form, bagged top prices thanks to their popularity. And perhaps, due the lack of fame in India of badminton stars such as Taufiq Hidayat, the top stars had to settle for the base price or reduced price, which is much lower than their actual worth.
And then the icing on the 'controversy’ cake came in the form of Jwala Gutta's attack on Saina Nehwal on Twitter after the latter commented that Hidayat should accept the fact that he's retired. The last thing IBL needed was a war of words between Indian icon players.
But have all these controversies lifted the curiosity of badminton followers? IBL is still in its nascent stage and any publicity, be it negative or positive, will only end up attractine more eyeballs. The unnecessary hype around the Saina Nehwal-PV Sindhu confrontation definitely brought IBL into focus. And the recent controversies have added more fuel to the fire.
But too much negative publicity can spell doom for the competition. What IBL needs currently is some superb badminton from its players so that fans flock to the stadium to get entertainment by pure badminton magic. Is it too tall an ask?
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