Prakash Padukone lauds Premier Badminton League, says new scoring 11-point system will bring more spectators

Prakash Padukone, legendary Indian badminton player and the first Indian ever to win the All England Championship title, said on Sunday that the new scoring system for the Premier Badminton League will be an exciting experiment as it will draw in more spectators and apart from adding uncertainty to the matches.

“It will be an exciting experiment. In the 11-point scoring system, anybody can win the match. There will be a lot of uncertainty, that will bring more spectators to the stadium and more viewership,” Padukone told PTI here in an interview.

The statement comes in the wake of some top international shuttlers Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu welcoming the shorter version of the scoring system. Saina recently had said it would be interesting to see how it pans out, but the games will get over quickly as points are less.

Sindhu, the Rio Olympics silver-medallist, had said the system will force players to be on alert and focus from the first point itself. Padukone, who also won the Danish and Swedish Open, said some amount of tinkering with scoring is always required for popularising the sport.“I think some kind of innovation and change is required for television viewers to make the sport interesting. So, I think in some ways it is good,” he said.

Striking a cautious note, Padukone said as long as the 11-point scoring system does not affect or becomes a norm for super series and other tournaments, it is definitely worth experimenting.“As long as it doesn’t affect or become a norm for super series and all that, but I don’t think they (Badminton World Federation) are planning to do that at this stage, but at this moment, it is definitely worth experimenting,” he said.