Financial windfall for badminton players as BAI announces rewards of close to Rs 1.5 crore

Badminton Association of India’s continuous endeavour to reward top-quality performance will see the association disburse close to Rs 1.5 crore to players and support staff. BAI, which had awarded a kitty of Rs 1 crore to the Thomas Cup winning squad earlier this year, announced the bonanza for the 2022 Commonwealth Games medallists, 2021 and 2022 World Championships medallist.

The Indian contingent came home with a best ever showing from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, bagging three gold, one silver and two bronze medals while the Indian men’s shuttlers have three medals to show from the two editions of the world championships.

"Our Badminton players have been consistently  winning laurels for the country and this cash award is a small effort to acknowledge their amazing achievements over the last two years,” said BAI president Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma while announcing the prize money.

The 10-member mixed team, which won the silver medal in Birmingham will get a total of Rs 30 lakh, or Rs 3 lakh each, for their effort while the eight members of the support staff with get Rs 1.5 lakh each. Commonwealth Games men’s and women’s singles champions Lakshya Sen and PV Sindhu would take home Rs 20 lakh each while the men’s doubles combination of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will be rewarded with Rs 25 lakh for bagging the historic gold in Birmingham.

“The way the Indian players have been performing at the world stage has meant that the prize purse has been increasing consistently and we are confident that the reward money would motivate everyone to continue the good work,” said BAI Secretary Sanjay Mishra.
 
Apart from the gold medallists, the young Women’s doubles combination of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly will take home Rs 7.5 lakh for their maiden bronze medal winning effort.Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will also get Rs 5 lakh for his men’s singles bronze in Birmingham along with Rs 10 lakh for his silver medal winning effort at the 2021 BWF World Championships in Huelva, Spain.

Sen would add Rs 5 lakh to his kitty for bagging the men’s singles bronze in 2021 while Shetty and Satwik will get another Rs 7.5 lakh for becoming the first Indian men’s doubles pair to clinch a world championships bronze in Tokyo last month.BAI plans to continue to encourage the players for their  super series performances too.