Chennai Superstarz

Not to be confused with Chennai Superstars, a cricket team that participated in the Indian Cricket League.
Chennai Superstarz
SportBadminton
Founded2015 (2015) as Chennai Smashers
First season2016
LeaguePremier Badminton League
Based inChennai, India
Home groundJawaharlal Nehru Stadium
ColorsYellow  
OwnerR. Sivakumar[1][2]
CEOAditya Meesala[2]
Head coachAravindan Samiappan[3]
CaptainTommy Sugiarto
PBL wins1 (2017)

Chennai Superstarz (formerly known as Chennai Smashers) is a franchise badminton team based in Chennai that plays in the Premier Badminton League (PBL). The team has won the PBL title once, has been in the semi-finals of the league twice in their five appearances. They won the 2017 season beating Mumbai Rockets 3–2. The franchise was renamed from Chennai Smashers to Chennai Superstarz in 2020.

History

The team's first season in the PBL was in 2016.[4][5] Vijay Prabhakaran initially owned the franchise from 2016 to 2019.[6][7] In December 2019, Sivakumar who owns a regional badminton league named Tamil Nadu Badminton Super League acquired the franchise to become its new owner.[2] The franchise also changed its name into Chennai Superstarz for the 2020 season.[8]

Rio Olympics silver medallist P. V. Sindhu was part of the team for the first three seasons.[6][9] They won their first and only PBL title in 2017. With P. V. Sindhu in their roster, they defeated Mumbai Rockets 3–2 in the final at New Delhi.[10] During the third and fourth seasons, the team finished sixth. They failed to get past Northeastern Warriors in the semi-finals (-1)–3. The team is currently coached by Aravindan Samiappan.

Home venue

From 2017, the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor stadium serves as the home for the team.[11] The stadium located in Chennai, has a seating capacity of 5,000.[12] In 2016, there was no home venue for the team due to unavailability of Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor stadium in Chennai and Coimbatore.[6]

Current squad

Player[13][8] Category Salary[14] Notes
Coach India Aravindan Samiappan[2][3]
Domestic India Satwiksairaj Rankireddy Men's/Mixed Doubles ₹62 lakh (US$74,000)
India B. Sumeeth Reddy ₹11 lakh (US$13,000) Retained player
India Dhruv Kapila
India Sanjana Santosh Women's/Mixed Doubles ₹2 lakh (US$2,400)
India Gayatri Gopichand Women's Singles ₹2 lakh (US$2,400)
India Lakshya Sen Men's Singles ₹36 lakh (US$43,000)
India K. Sathish Kumar ₹1 lakh (US$1,200)
India Sankar Muthusamy ₹1 lakh (US$1,200)
Overseas Indonesia Tommy Sugiarto ₹41 lakh (US$49,000) Captain
Scotland Kirsty Gilmour Women's Singles ₹10 lakh (US$12,000)
England Jessica Pugh Women's/Mixed Doubles ₹13 lakh (US$16,000) Transferred from Mumbai[15]

Seasons

Result summary

S Year Total RMW TMW TML Pts. Win % League standing Final standing
1 2016 25 10 4 1 17 56% 3rd out of 6 Semi-finalist
2 2017 25 8 5 0 18 52% 1st out of 6 Champions
3 2017–18 25 8 3 2 12 44% 6th out of 8 6th Place
4 2018–19 30 12 3 3 15 50% 6th out of 9 6th Place
5 2020 30 10 6 0 22 53% 3rd out of 7 Semi-finalist
Total 135 48 21 6 — 51%

Last updated: 7 February 2020; Source: Official PBL website

Season 3

Player statistics

Player Category P W Sets Won Sets Lost Win % MVP
France Brice Leverdez Men's Singles 4 1 2 6 25 0
Indonesia Sony Dwi Kuncoro 3 1 3 5 33.3 0
Indonesia Simon Santoso 3 2 4 4 50 0
India P. V. Sindhu Women's Singles 5 5 9 3 100 2
India Krishna Priya 0 0 0 0 0 0
India Pranaav Chopra Men's/Mixed Doubles 5 1 4 8 20 0
England Chris Adcock 9 5 11 10 56 2
Canada Toby Ng 1 0 0 2 0 0
India Sikki Reddy Women's/Mixed Doubles 0 0 0 0 0 0
Indonesia Pia Zebadiah 5 4 8 4 80 0
Total Matches Played: 5 NA 80 4

Season 4

Season 5

Player statistics

Player Category P W Sets Won Sets Lost Win % MVP
India Lakshya Sen Men's Singles 5 4 9 3 80% 1
India K. Sathish Kumar 2 0 0 4 0% 0
India Sankar Muthusamy 1 0 0 2 0% 0
Indonesia Tommy Sugiarto 4 4 8 2 100% 2
India Gayatri Gopichand Women's Singles 4 0 2 8 0% 0
Scotland Kirsty Gilmour 2 2 4 0 100% 0
India Satwiksairaj Rankireddy Men's/Mixed Doubles 7 4 9 10 57% 1
India B. Sumeeth Reddy 4 2 4 5 50% 1
India Dhruv Kapila 7 3 7 9 43% 1
India Sanjana Santosh Women's/Mixed Doubles 1 0 0 2 0% 0
England Jessica Pugh 5 3 6 6 60% 1
Total Matches Played: 30 NA

Last updated: 5 February 2020; Source: Official PBL website

Chennai Superstarz finished third in the league stage with 22 points qualifying for the semifinals. They won all of their trump matches becoming the only team in the season to do so. They lost to Northeastern Warriors in the semifinal. This was their second PBL semifinal loss in five appearances.

Former squads

Year
(S) 		2018-19[25]
(4) 		2017-18
(3) 		2017
(2) 		2016[6]
(1)
Domestic India Vijaydeep Singh
India Sumeeth Reddy India P. V. Sindhu India P. V. Sindhu India P. V. Sindhu
India Rutaparna Panda India Aditya Joshi India Arundhati Pantawane India Krishna Priya
India Saili Rane India B. Sumeeth Reddy India Parupalli Kashyap India Pranaav Chopra
India Saili Rane India Daniel Farid India Ramya Tulasi India Sikki Reddy
India Parupalli Kashyap India Vrushali Gummadi India B. Sumeeth Reddy
Overseas England Chris Adcock England Chris Adcock England Chris Adcock England Chris Adcock
England Gabby Adcock France Brice Leverdez Indonesia Tommy Sugiarto France Brice Leverdez
Hong Kong Or Chin Chung England Gabby Adcock England Gabby Adcock Indonesia Sony Dwi Kuncoro
England Rajiv Ouseph Thailand Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk Thailand Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk Indonesia Simon Santoso
South Korea Sung Ji-hyun Taiwan Lee Yang Denmark Mads Pieler Kolding Canada Toby Ng
Malaysia Chong Wei Feng Indonesia Pia Zebadiah
  • Team captains listed in bold.

References

  1. ^ Behind The Scenes: Short Interview with owners Aditya Meesala and R.Sivakumar, retrieved 23 January 2020
  2. ^ a b c d Keerthivasan, K. (27 November 2019). "Premier Badminton League | It will now be Chennai Superstarz". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  3. ^ a b Superstarz Diaries: Episode 1: The day after the win against Hyderabad Hunters, retrieved 23 January 2020
  4. ^ "Badminton Association of India announces the 2nd Edition of the Indian Badminton League". sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  5. ^ "After two year gap, Indian Badminton League will return in 2016". firstpost.com. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d "Smashers latch on to CSK identity". The Hindu. 25 December 2015.
  7. ^ "Actor Vijayakanth's son Vijay acquires new team in Indian Cue Masters League". United News of India. 26 July 2017.
  8. ^ a b Sportstar, Team. "PBL Auction- As it happened: PV Sindhu, Tai Tzu fetch big bucks, Chennai, Pune build strong teams". Sportstar. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  9. ^ "PBL 2017: PV Sindhu Beats Saina Nehwal To Guide Chennai Smashers to Final". News18. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  10. ^ Das, Deepika (15 January 2017). "PBL: Smashers zoom past Rockets in final". The Asian Age. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  11. ^ "Fixtures". Premier Badminton League. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  12. ^ "Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai". SDAT, Government of Tamil Nadu. Archived from the original on 18 March 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  13. ^ "Team Overview". Premier Badminton League. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  14. ^ Sportstar, Team. "PBL 5 Auction: Full team list, released and sold players". Sportstar. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  15. ^ India, P. B. L. (20 January 2020). "Done deal!". @PBLIndiaLive. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  16. ^ "Premier Badminton League: PV Sindhu's Chennai Smashers Edge Past Mumbai Rockets". NDTVSports.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  17. ^ "Premier Badminton League 2016". www.pbl-india.com. Archived from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  18. ^ "Smashers score over Hunters". The Hindu. 10 January 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 10 January 2016.[permanent dead link‍]
  19. ^ "Premier Badminton League 2016, The Highest Prize Money Tournament in World". pbl-india.com. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  20. ^ "Awadhe Warriors beat Chennai Smashers 4-1, enter Premier Badminton League semis". IBNLive. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
  21. ^ "Premier Badminton League 2016, The Highest Prize Money Tournament in World". pbl-india.com. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  22. ^ "Premier Badminton League 2016, The Highest Prize Money Tournament in World". pbl-india.com. Archived from the original on 14 January 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  23. ^ "Premier Badminton League 2016, The Highest Prize Money Tournament in World". pbl-india.com. Archived from the original on 14 January 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  24. ^ "Rules and Regulations". PBL. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  25. ^ "Team Squad". Premier Badminton League. Retrieved 10 January 2020.