National Badminton Championship: Cream of India’s second-rung talent to be in action

Nearly a dozen years after last making a pit stop in the Garden City, the Senior National Badminton Championship will return to Bengaluru for its latest edition starting Wednesday.

The cream of India’s second-rung talent will be in action in the seven-day long event which will see team championship matches on the first two days followed by the individual competitions.

In 2017, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) had made a spirited effort to revive the premier domestic tourney in the country. Top players participated and the prize money went up, and for two consecutive seasons P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal clashed in the final.

The tournament has slipped back into being a training ground for the young and upcoming – the end of the season slot doesn’t probably help in attracting stars – but it may not be a bad thing, for badminton is now one of the country’s premier sports and the matches present a chance to see the building of a talent pipeline.

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The likes of defending champion Anmol Kharb, Isharani Baruah and Tanvi Sharma – all three of whom helped India qualify for the Uber Cup quarterfinals earlier in the year – are set to play while the men’s roster has last year’s winner Chirag Sen, Ayush Shetty, Mithun Manjunath and Sai Prateek among notable names.

Interestingly, Ayush, Mithun and Sai Prateek are all from Karnataka but will turn out for Railways. The fancied Karnataka women’s doubles pairing of Shikha Gautam and Ashwini Bhat will be keenly watched.

As many as 450 players have registered and they will be vying for a total prize money that amounts to a handsome ₹50 lakh. Of this, ₹10 lakh is for the team competition where there are seven entries each among men and women. The singles winners will pocket as much as ₹3.25 lakh each while the doubles winners will take home ₹3.45 lakh.