Chandigarh Badminton Association to live-stream state badminton c’ship matches

Deepankar Sharda
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 23

In a first-of-its kind initiative, the Chandigarh Badminton Association (CBA) has decided to live-stream the Yonex Sunrise Chandigarh State Badminton Championship for the benefit of players and their parents.

The association is hosting this championship from December 24 to 27 at the Sector 38 Sports Complex. And it has been decided that main draw matches, starting from December 25, will be live-streamed at videoFLAKES.tv.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the association has prohibited entry of parents, friends and other players inside the sports complex.

“The matches will be live streamed so that parents can easily watch their wards playing from their respective homes or work places,” said Col Raj Parmar (retd), tournament director and senior vice-president, CBA.

As per the instructions, the CBA will sanitise playing arena, shuttles, courts and door handles at regular intervals. Only 12 players, who have their match fixed, will be allowed to enter the playing hall. There will be a separate area for warm-up, which can be used only before the match. Only one coach can accompany one player inside the playing hall. He/she will be allowed to coach the player from the designated place.

“We have to be extra cautious since we are the first association in the city to conduct a state meet. We have been facing an unprecedented situation and have to act accordingly. In normal times, spectators including parents and other players would come here in large numbers,” said Surinder Mahajan, Secretary, CBA.

“However, this time, we have to make sure about minimum presence of people for safeguarding players. So the live streaming of matches has been approved. It will be for the first time that matches will be live streamed by any association in this Covid-19 pandemic,” Mahajan added. “We have doubled the number of officials for supervising matches. We are likely to host good number of matches during this tournament,” said Mahajan.

The tournament will be conducted in boys and girls (U-19) and senior (men and women) categories. “There will be singles, doubles and mixed doubles events for every age group. We have received an overwhelming response from players. The last nine months were really hard on us and on players. However, we hope that such championships will boost players’ confidence and make a way for bringing back the normal in world of sport,” Mahajan added.