BAI Announces Cash Reward of Rs 5 lakh for Indonesia Open Badminton Winner Kidambi Srikanth

Team Udayavani, Jun 18, 2017, 7:21 PM IST

New Delhi:  Badminton Association of India (BAI) announced a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh for Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth for his amazing victory at the Indonesia Open Superseries Premier on Sunday.

Srikanth who has picked up on his form after a slow start to the season due to injury was in his ravishing best as he beat world number one player, Son Wan Ho to enter the finals and picked up a flawless straight game victory over Kazumasa Sakai of Japan 21-11, 21-19.

“It is a matter of huge joy for the entire country to see Srikanth triumph in Indonesia. I called him right after the match to congratulate him on this stellar win. He has made the whole country proud once again and I am quite confident he will keep doing so in future as well,” BAI President, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said. This victory not only gave Srikanth’s his second Superseries Premier title but also saw him achieve a rare feat of becoming the first Indian man to ever win the prestigious Indonesia Open, Sarma added.

Apart from Srikanth’s feat, it was overall a great outing from the Indian men contingent with HS Prannoy also rising to the occasion. His dream run to the last four was not only his first super series semifinal outing but also saw some real good performance beating Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei and current Olympic champion Chen Long of China in respective rounds.

Adding to the BAI President’s views Anup Narang, official spokesperson and General Secretary of BAI further added, “we are really delighted at Kidambi’s achievement and to celebrate that Dr. Sarma on behalf of BAI has announced a cash reward of 5 lakh for his stupendous performance in Jakarta.”