Badminton Association of India announced on Tuesday prize money of Rs 1.42 crores to players and support staff who have been part of medals at the World Championships (2021 & 2022) and Commonwealth Games.
Earlier this year, BAI had also announced a reward of Rs 1 crore for the Thomas Cup winning squad.
The Indian contingent came home with solid showing from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, bagging three gold, one silver and two bronze medals while Indian men’s shuttlers have three medals to show from the two editions of the world championships.
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 Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will be rewarded with Rs 25 lakh for bagging the historic gold in Birmingham, the first ever by a men’s doubles pair from India.
Apart from the gold medallists, the teenaged women’s doubles combination of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly will take home Rs 7.5 lakh for their bronze medal winning effort on debut.
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 late last year.
Sen would add Rs 5 lakh to his kitty for bagging the men’s singles bronze in 2021 while Shetty and Rankireddy 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.
“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 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,” added BAI Secretary Sanjay Mishra.