AXIATA CUP– Badminton’s first million-dollar team event

Tommy Sugiarto (Team Indonesia Rajawali) and Lee Chong Wei (Team Malaysia Tigers)

A new team event, the Axiata Cup kicks off this week in Malaysia to bring great team badminton to the very appreciative Southeast Asian region, all in a big money context.

By Adrian Kok, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: Badmintonphoto

The Axiata Cup is the brainchild of the Axiata Group, one of the largest telecommunication conglomerates in Asia. This event is formatted as a league type event, similar to the Surdiman, Thomas, and Uber Cups.   Top male badminton players from around the world will form teams to represent Southeast Asian nations Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Each team will be represented by a minimum of four players and will be divided into 2 categories, two men’s singles and one men’s doubles.

Badminton’s top guns like Lee Chong Wei, Taufik Hidayat, Markis Kido, Hendra Setiawan and many more will be participating in this event.   Although most of the players representing the teams are from Asia, there will be two players from European continent.  Marc Zwiebler of Germany and Denmark’s Mathias Boe will be both be part of the Philippines team.

Mathias Boe (Team Philippines)

The first round robin will be held from March 23^rd to 25^th, simultaneously in Malaysia and Indonesia. Participating teams have been drawn into two Groups, K and J, and these groups’ matches will be played respectively at the Stadium Badminton Cheras in Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta’s Indoor Tennis Senayan. The team group draw is as follows:

Group K

• Indonesia Rajawali
• Malaysia Tigers
• Philippines
• Thailand

Group J

• Indonesia Garuda
• Malaysia Leopards
• Singapore
• Vietnam

Zulfadli Zulkifli (Team Malaysia Leopards)

The top two teams with the highest points within each group will progress to the semi-finals. It will be played on a home and away basis. By far, this will be the top of the team event list in terms of prize money. The winning team will take home a whopping US$400,000.