Hyderabad: The Badminton Association of India (BAI) has decided to revamp the domestic tournament set-up in order to have a performance-oriented approach. A multi-level tournament structure at the senior level with close to Rs 2 crores as prize money has been introduced which will help to create a sustained pool of excellence.
The revamped structure will have three levels of tournaments with the Level 3 having six BAI Series Badminton tournaments in a year with Rs 10 lakhs as prize money for each tournament. With no restriction on entry in qualifying, 30 singles players and 15 in paired events as per BAI Ranking will get direct main draw entries.
While the first three tournaments will be held from May to June, next three will follow in November.
In Level 2, four BAI Super Series Badminton tournaments will be held, which will have Rs 15 lakhs as prize money for individual tournaments. The top 48 singles players and 24 doubles pairs as per BAI Ranking will get direct main-draw entry and players with ranking points from Level 3 tournaments will also be eligible for qualifying draw. The first couple of tournaments at this level will be in July with the last two in December.