New Delhi: Over 100 top badminton stars, including Olympic champion Carolina Marin and Rio silver medallist P.V. Sindhu, will be up for grabs at the players’ auction for the lucrative Premier Badminton League Season 2 here on Wednesday.
Olympic bronze winner Viktor Axelsen of Denmark will also be among the 16 Olympic medallists, who have confirmed their participation at the second edition of the event to be held from January 1 to 14.
The PBL is the revamped edition of the Indian Badminton League. Top players from China and Japan, however, will give the event a miss as they will be competing in their respective national tournaments.
As many as three men’s singles players, including Axelsen, Jan O. Jorgensen of Denmark and Sun Won Ho of Korea, and four women’s singles players, including Marin, Sindhu, Saina Nehwal have been put in the top bracket.
The six-team strong competition will be held at Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Lucknow. Each franchise will splash out Rs 1.93 crore to build their team, with the individual price for top players likely to go up to '65 lakhs for the two-week league.
Teams have the option of retaining three players by invoking the Right to Match option and paying up the final bid price.
