IBL is here to stay: Potluri Vara Prasad
The best way to describe Potluri Vara Prasad would be to say he has been a man of many parts and has been successful in everything he has tried his hand at — be it as an entrepreneur, film producer or as an educationalist. Lately he has been in the news for being the sole owner of Hyderabad Hotshots, a franchise he acquired in the recently launched Indian Badminton League.
Prasad, who is a badminton aficionado himself, is cautiously optimistic about the success of the inaugural edition of the IBL.
“Firstly I am delighted at getting to own the Hyderabad team in what I believe is going to be a highly competitive league. If you look at the players in all the six franchises, it is easy to understand that on the surface all of them look evenly matched and it’s a level playing field. So it should make for an engrossing tournament,” explains Prasad who insists that he is in this venture for the long haul and is hopeful that the league will go from strength to strength in the years to come.
He also added that it would be too premature to predict whether there would be an increase in the number of teams starting from the second edition.
When asked to spell out his strategy behind the bidding of players, Prasad takes pride in succeeding in his main objective of luring former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat.
“Surprisingly we didn’t face much difficulty in our bid for Hidayat at the auction.
He may have retired but he is still young and along with Saina Nehwal we have two of the best players in our team which gives me confidence that we have what it takes to win the tournament,” adds Prasad.
With Saina being India’s first individual medal winner at the Olympics and currently the highest ranked player, almost all the franchisees did everything in their power to procure her services but eventually Prasad came out smelling like a rose with a successful bid of $1,20,000.
“Since Saina is a Hyderabad girl, we were desperate not to miss out on her and I am ecstatic that she is a part of Hotshots team. The team will be coached by Rajendra Kumar who is heading the Gopichand Badminton Academy,” concludes Prasad.
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