Rich field as IBL auction looms

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Home-grown stars including Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap along with Malaysian world no. 1 Lee Chong Wei have been given the top base price of $50,000 at the players’ auction of the Indian Badminton League, due to be held here on Monday.
In a lineup released on Saturday, the base price of the icon players — Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, P.V. Sindhu besides Saina, Kashyap and Lee — have been set at $50,000 for the franchise-based tournament, to be played across six cities from August 14.
In total, there are eight top-10 shuttlers in the men’s singles section, and five from the top-10 in the women’s category.
In the men’s section besides Lee and Kashyap, world no. 4 Thai Boonsak Ponsana and sixth ranked Hu Yun from Hong Kong are also at the same base price as the icon players.
Surprisingly, former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. who retired recently, has been priced at only $15,000. Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia, Kenichi Tago of Japan and Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen at a base price of $25,000, are the other top-10 players to be part of the auction.
Other Indians in the auction list are Ajay Jayaram ($30,000) and R.M.V. Gurusaidutt ($25,000). Moreover, more than 90 Indians, not mentioned in the list, will be also part of the auction on Monday.
Though top Chinese shuttlers have given the $1 million league a miss, former shuttlers Zheng Bo (men’s doubles) and Bao Chunlai (men’s singles) will be part of the auction, and priced at $40,000.
Among the women’s singles, world no.4 Juliane Schenk and Thai teen sensation Ratchanok Intanon are also tagged at $50,000. But All England champion Tine Baun of Denmark has been priced at only $30,000.
Meanwhile, Danish world no.3 pair Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen are the top draw in the men’s doubles. The duo have been given a base price of $50,000, higher than any other pair in their category.

Lee excited to be part of IBL
Malaysian star Lee said he was looking forward to playing with different nationalities during the IBL. “I have been travelling a lot to New Delhi but this will be a new experience and I hope to have a great time teaming up with players from different countries,” said the two-time Olympic silver medallist.