The Premier Badminton League (PBL) will see the introduction of a 'Trump Match', a rule which could prove to be the game changer when the 16-day long event gets underway on January 2nd.
There will be five matches in a tie and every team will have the option of selecting one of these matches as their 'Trump Match', in which, a victory would give the team a bonus point and a loss a negative point.
In another minor rule modification, each match will take in consideration the best of three Games and each game will be played for 15 points and a sudden death at 14 all.
Speaking on the new format, Akhilesh Das Gupta, Badminton Association of India President & PBL Chairman said: "The idea behind introducing the new rules is to make the League more competitive.
"The new format will keep each team on the edge as each day will produce a new result and might put different teams on a better position vis-a-vis the positions that they were a day earlier. So no team can take any day lightly as one wrong move will prove tables changing for them."
According to the 'Trump Match' rules, both teams will specify which of the five matches will be their respective Trump Match along with the list of players at least one hour before the start of the Tie with the Referee. It is fine that both the teams can have their Trumps in the same match.
In a Trump Match, the team that has called for the Trump gets 2 points for win and -1 points for loss. However, the other team will play this match as a normal match. If both the teams place the trump on the same match, then for both of them +2 or -1 scoring will apply for win or loss respectively.
According to the new format announced by PBL today, each team plays five ties with the other five teams - hence 15 Ties during the league stage followed by Semi-finals & Finals.
Each tie will comprise of five matches - Men's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Singles, Mixed Doubles and Men's Singles.
Also only after each team shares the list of players who will be playing the five matches and their choice of trump match, the order of play will be mutually decided by the Technical team of PBL and Star India before each tie to keep the schedule unpredictable.
