Zee Media Bureau/Chaitan Papnai
New Delhi: Finally, the well deserving team of Hyderabad Hotshots won the inaugural edition of Indian Badminton League by defeating the Lucknow franchise Awadhe Warriors in the finals on Saturday in Mumbai.
The inaugural season of the League undoubtedly earned the applause from most of the quarters.
The short and crisp 18-day event, held in six cities got an excellent reception from everywhere. People thronged the stadiums to support their home teams and favourite players.
Except Chinese shuttlers, most big names in the sport around the globe participated in the richest badminton league, including the World number one Lee Chong Wei.
Several cricketers, Bollywood celebrities and even politicians attended the event cheering their favourite teams and shuttlers. Prominent personalities among them included the likes of cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, Finance Minister of India P Chidambaram and Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan.
The basic idea behind this League was to make the sport more popular in the country and to give young and promising Indian shuttles a chance to play with or against world-class shuttlers. And now one can say that the organisers achieved both these goals quite successfully, even after facing some teething problems.
Among the promising Indian shuttlers, K Srikanth came out as a find of the inaugural season as he displayed some excellent skills on the court to beat some well-known players in the international circuit.
So, the inaugural season of the IBL has certainly become a smash hit.
