Premier Badminton League, which has been in Limbo in the last five years, is to be restarted in 2026, confirmed the Minister of the Badminton Association (BAI) Sanjay Misra. In an interview with India, Misra explained today that the association reduces links with the previous tournament promoter, Sportzlive, and is trying to start a revised tournament.
Badminton, one of the best Indian medals at the Olympics, has tremendous popularity across the country. Bai twice announced the plans to restart the popular franchise tournament, before and after the Indian victory of Thomas Cup in 2022, but missed both dates it set.
PBL was last played in 2020 and then stopped because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The tournament was hosted for 5 editions and enjoyed popularity among badminton fans in the country.
Misra revealed that Bai spoke twice to start the tournament, but the promoter failed to request. According to him, the promoter was given by the ultimatum and the association has now initiated proceedings for a formally reduction in custody.
“Bai worked with the Sportzlive company. We told them to restart the tournament. We gave them data but were unable to start the tournament because of the differences with team owners.
India today addressed the promoter of PBL Prasad Mangipudi, but received no answer.
New format on cards
Misra suggested that the seven franchises involved in the tournament were not satisfied with the earlier format. PBL matches were played in a round robin format. Each tie consisted of five matches-the men of male singles, women’s singles, male doubles and mixed doubles-everything played in the best format of three.
The first two games were played at 11 points, and if the match went to the third game, it was 15 points.
Misra said that Bai is currently trying to find out a better format and discussed with the owners of franchise about the same.
“We are trying to improve the PBL format. I do not think that PBL owners were very satisfied with the previous format. We will announce the tournament over the next six months and will start the tournament under another name next year,” Sanjay Misra concluded.
Indian players are the moment they focus on the BWF World Championship. Most players have received drawing ideas, but Misra hopes that India will culminate at the right time.
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Published:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
August 24, 2025
