India’s women’s badminton ace Saina Nehwal and World No 1 men’s shuttler Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia have been given the top base price of $50,000 for the upcoming Indian Badminton League players auction to be held here on Monday.
Along with Saina and Lee, four Indian shuttlers - Parupalli Kashyap, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa and PV Sindhu - have got a $50,000 base price tag to add to their Icon Player status for the franchise based tourney to be held across six Indian cities from Aug 14-31.
As was known, none of the top Chinese shuttlers are participating in the event apart from Zheng Bo (men’s doubles) and Bao Chunlai (men’s singles). Just the fact that they are from the most dominant country in the sport has led them to be given a base price of $40,000.
Other Indian shuttlers featuring in the auction list are Mumbai’s Ajay Jayaram, priced at $30,000, and RMV Gurusaidutt, at $25,000.