An inter-corporate badminton tournament where agencies and marketers battle it against each other

After delivering successful events year-on-year, Star Sports – Clash of the Baddies, returned this year in a bigger and better avatar with Maruti Suzuki and Mindshare winning the championship in Delhi and Bangalore editions respectively.

With over 100 number of participants and representatives, the inter-corporate badminton championship for agencies and marketers hosted in the hub of brands and marketing agencies, Delhi and Bengaluru were well received.

The competitiveness was seen in the teams from knockout stage to finals where teams battled it out in a remarkable way. Few of the participants were Madison, Initiative, Nissan, DDB Mudra, Wavemaker, Mediacom, Publicis, Havas Media, Essence, Omnicom, Dentsu and Zenith amongst which, Maruti Suzuki and Mindshare emerged victorious in respective cities.

Talking about the tournament few of the key participants said:

Vani Aiyer- General Manager, NISSAN “I take a lot of interest in Badminton and love watching the sport. Clash of the Baddies was so exciting, my team and I had a lot of fun. This event was a fantastic opportunity for us to meet and interact with more people outside our workplace. I am really looking forward for the upcoming season of PBL, especially with all the global news Indian players are garnering. It is a great opportunity for badminton to come up, otherwise it’s always been Cricket or even hockey to an extent, so we are waiting to watch the upcoming season”

R Venkatasubramanian- National Head, Investments, Havas Media “I always wait for Clash of the Baddies and I am so happy to be here. It’s a very interesting format, because we normally don’t interact with everyone as we are all busy working. Maruti and NISSAN were also here with whom we don’t generally interact casually, but such event helps us to build our relationships with our clients and other teams. The sport is growing in India and with the likes of Kidambi Srikanth, P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal all performing well, the sport has a good future in India. After Cricket and Pro Kabaddi, I believe this is the third sport which is upcoming in India and I am looking forward to the new season PBL”

Vishal Singh - VP, Client Leadership, Mindshare “I feel it is a brilliant initiative by Star Sports and I thank them for having us here. It is a good platform for us to interact with our colleagues and people from the industry and helps in building our relationships with our peers. Earlier sports were given utmost importance and I played badminton in school and college and now I am so glad I get to play the sport even while I am working. I hope the current generation also starts playing at a young age as this is a mantra to stay fit. PBL is a great platform for upcoming badminton players. In the past 3-4 years, a lot of Indian badminton players have got into the top 10 & 20 list which I feel is largely because of PBL. Players get a lot of exposure as they get an opportunity to play with players and coaches from other countries which helps them to improve their game. I believe PBL has a big hand in giving us championships in both men’s and women’s category and I feel that we have a good future for the sport”

Shivaprasad, Business Director, Madison Omega said “I think Clash of the Baddies is a great initiative by Star sports. It is a great place to participate and socialise with people and I am sure it will give us a lot of happy memories. I have always been a sports enthusiast and on weekends I wake up the early and play badminton and cricket with my childhood friends. Badminton is the latest sport I have started playing, I saw Madison play at the Clash of the Baddies in the first inaugural year and they won and that’s the time I took the sport seriously and started to play badminton with my colleagues and friends and third year I am in the team. I have memories of Cricket and Football as a child, baring these two sports I don’t think none of us had exposure to any other sport. Pre-dominantly it has been cricket, as India is a country that loves cricket but in recent years we have seen enough badminton courts for public to play all over the country and which has opened doors for other players to also participate. Our national players like Srikanth and Sindhu have always inspired a lot of people. I am a follower of BWF, I have probably watched all the tournaments on Hotstar or Star sports. It is a great initiative like IPL. Though it still must reach its peak, its building up as a lot of people have just started playing badminton and will relate to the sport more in the upcoming years and will become the leading sport in India”

Sri Harsha C, Partner-Client Lead, DDB Mudra Group “I have been playing badminton since 2015 and it surely is a very refreshing sport and earlier I used to play other sports, majorly cricket but the moment I started playing badminton, it has been good. The earliest memory of badminton I can think of right now is that we were the champions of Clash of the Baddies season two and we unfortunately lost this time. Clash of the Baddies gives us an opportunity and platform to meet our earlier colleagues and ex-teammates. It is also a great platform to interact with other people. Apart from that the sport is very refreshing and the arrangements done by Star Sports are fantastic. I have always looked forward to participating in such tournaments as it is very refreshing”

Clash of The Baddies has set the ball rolling for the upcoming Premier Badminton League scheduled to go on air on January 20, 2020