PANAJI: The 4th edition of Vasco Badminton League (VBL) will commence on January 30 at Chicalim badminton stadium, Vasco da Gama. Organised by Chicalim Badminton Club (CBC) under the aegis of Goa Badminton Association (GBA), many of Goa’s top shuttlers such as Anjana Kumari, Yasmin Sayed, Anar Singbal, Sushil Nayak, Karan Dhavaskar, Floyd Araujo, Fredrick Fernandes, Sanath Kamat, Sunny Sawant, Navneet Nasnodkar, Parteek Mahajan, Aryaman Saraf, Chetan Magdum, Yash Desai, Siya Kolwalkar and Disha Dutta will be in action during the two-day event.
The league championship has on offer a prize purse of Rs 25,000 for the winners, Rs 15000 for the runners-up and Rs 7500 for third-place team, along with glittering trophies and many other special prizes. The finals will be held on Sunday, January 31 at 5pm. In all, 6 teams comprising 15 players each, will make up the field.
TEAMS
Goan Rebels: Praveen Shenoy, captain, Aditya Desai, vice-captain.
Goan Spartans: Ibrahim, captain, Deepak Bhanushali, vice-captain
Power Smashers: Nilesh Naik, captain, Manish Pankhania, vice-captain
Amigos Shuttlers: Devanand Shirodkar, captain, Meghal Coutancar, vice-captain
Flying Gravity: Wilfred Fernandes, captain, Siraj Wadkar, vice-captain
Predator: Damodar Poojary, captain, Sohan Naik, vice-captain
“This is a novel initiative by Chicalim Badminton Club, though the fourth edition, it’s the first time they have done it at an all-Goa level and this has generated a lot of excitement among Goan players. Badminton is gaining popularity by the day in India and it’s nice to see more and more clubs coming forward to organise team championships on a professional scale which will generate more interest for the sport in Goa. From here on, we see the game definitely growing and glowing in Vasco and these are great times ahead.”
Sandeep Heble, GBA secretary
CBC president Praveen Shenoy, shared few details about the vision and future club plans. “CBC in collaboration with GBA is taking great efforts in coaching youngsters and grooming them for representing Goa at the national level and further representing the country at International levels. Training is happening at sub-junior, junior, men’s and women’s categories. GBA and its affiliated clubs have been very proactive during these tough pandemic times in promoting and conducting badminton tournaments in Goa. There will be many such tournaments that will be conducted every quarter by CBC”, he said.
Following is the newly-elected CBC committee for 2021-2023: Praveen Shenoy (President), Dr Sarfaraz Ahmed (Vice President), Kailash Davne (Secretary), Devanand Shirodkar (Treasurer), Fredrick Fernandes (Jt Secretary) and Aniket Redkar (Jt Treasurer).
