I have not the foggiest idea why this is such a secret. But the news finally emerges that the 2014-2015 edition of CBSL will start on December 27. The biggest news is that a match will be decided by best 3 of 5 11-point games. There will be no breaks within each game but there will be breaks of less than 60 seconds between games. The mixed team format continues. There are 12 teams divided into 2 groups of 6. The first stage will be double round robin. Top 2 teams in each group will enter the knock out stage.
For a start, at least a couple of months, BAYI will not be at full force with the absence of Li Xuerui, injured and in plaster cast for about six weeks beginning 17th Nov, and Lin Dan who's still not yet completely recovered from his right knee injury, the worst in his 14-year career to date. Probably Liu Xin will take LXR's place as WS1 for the time being, and LD may play but not at his best, not sure who else in BAYI can substitute him when needed without compromising the team's strength too much.
I guess CBSL is forced to adopt the best of five 11-point scoring system as prime time TV broadcast on CCTV-5 sports is costly and crowded with so many sports competing for attention and viewership. Another equally if not more important consideration is that Li Yongbo won't want his charges to be too involved in the domestic league and be physically stretched and risk injury as they have to give top priority to international competitions for national glory.
This is a league rather than a tournament. The matches stretch over many months in a home and away format. CBSL is poorly promoted. More information should come out soon. Tickets are aplenty. Check the schedule when it is released, pick your date and city and just go.
Hello, Thanks for your reply, I know it is a tournament that is held several places in China. I will be specifically in Guangzhou in january. I was hoping to have like a website or somewhere to find out more information as to where I could get tickets or schedule. Thanks!
Kudos to Badzine for getting the scoop on the CBSL rosters: http://www.badzine.net/news/2014-2015-china-badminton-super-league-team-rosters/33075/ It also identifies the official website as http://www.yy008.com/yy008/info.action?id=371 Competition will start 10 days from now.
Bad news, Lin Dan may not play in the CBSL this season and it's nothing to do with his recent knee injury but for lack of sponsorship for his team BAYI. Both surprising and sad that CBSL is into its 5th year and yet getting sponsorship is still a problem for several teams, and this time round four of the 12 teams participating were affected, which means the clubs concerned will have to foot their own expenses in salaries, accommodation and transport. The main reason why Lin Dan is not playing is because he doesn't want to burden BAYI with his high salary of RMB3mn (three million RMB) as originally agreed upon since three years ago, and putting himself up for sale as some people suggested isn't a viable option either as hardly any team can afford the expected transfer fee. But all is not lost, for Lin Dan said although vaguely he is willing to offer his services to BAYI at crucial matches, gratis I supposed or perhaps for a token sum though that wasn't specifically expressed. Even if he's prepared to forgo his salary, there's still his travelling and lodging expenses which is why understandably he is in a quandary. The above is what I gathered from the report here http://sports.qq.com/a/20141223/061628.htm . In fact, the entire league itself for once is without a sponsor. It's also not stated in the article whether CCTV5-Sport will be airing the event. As for Lin Dan, we've to bear in mind the CBSL is supposed to be a professional league, so it's not appropriate for him to play for free and , worse, pay his own expenses, not to mention it's not fair to other paid players and sponsored teams, sort of putting them in an awkward situation.Well, we'll see.
More news http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2014-12-25/19107460605.shtml The 12 teams are divided by drawing of lots into the Red and the Blue Divisions . In the Red group are:- Guangdong Century City, Jiangsu Wande Recreation, Hunan Jiangwan Group, Guangdong Club, Liaoning Yixing, and Guangxi Hande. In the Blue group are :- Xiamen Tefang, Guangzhou Yueyu, Zhejiang Jinti, BAYI, Qingdao Hezhan Renzhou, and Sichuan Jinli Zhiye. After the regular group ties of home and away matches, the top two finishers in each division will play cross knockout competition including tiebreakers to determine the 1st to 4th places. Preliminary group competition begins 27th Dec' 2014 and ends 2nd Feb 2015, the knockout stage and playoffs commence 13th June till 29th June 2015. In keeping with BWF's proposed trial in the scoring system, the new CBSL season will adopt the best 3 of 5 sets using the 11-point scoring system with no deuces. For this edition, among the registered players are Lin Dan, Chen Long, Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian, Cai Yun, Fu Haifeng, Zhang Nan, Chai Biao, Hong Wei, Yu Yang, Wang Xiaoli, Tian Qing, Zhao Yunlei, etc, world-class players. Worth mentioning is that those players who were originally not taken by any club such as Cai Yun, Yu Yang, Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei have all found their homes - "Cai Yun joins Jiangsu, Yu Yang goes to Liaoning, and as Beijing (Zhang Nan) is without a club and Hubei (Zhao Yunlei) was demoted, both ZN/ZYL finally come under Guangzhou Yueyu," said Feng Pin, Deputy Head of China Badminton and Table Tennis Center. As regards the enlistment of foreign aid (players), Liaoning Yixing enrolled the KOR Sung Ji Hyun; the 2013 WC Intanon Ratchanok who had signed a 3-year contract with Qingdao continues her services; Hunan Jiangwan extended a sincere invitation to KOR Son Wan Ho who accepted it. It was rumoured that the invitation to Tai Tzu Ying was unsuccessful to which Feng Pin explained:" Reportedly the attempt to enlist her fell through, because of our demands that foreign players must play at least four ties/matches, her own tournament schedule presumably clashes with ours." According to reports, the opening match will be held on 27th December at 7.30 in the evening in the Qingdao University gymnasium with the kickoff of the Qingdao vs Guangzhou contest.
QingDao vs GuangZhou will be on CCTV5+ at 7:30pm local time. Not sure where to find a live stream though. Anyone?
Looks like it's big relief for Liao Ning club to recruit Sung Ji Hyun as looking up to the roster, none of CHN top WS is listed in this club.
Great, Wang Xin is playing for BAYI and Wang Lin for Zhejiang http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2014-12-26/10437461153.shtml
In the kickoff between Qingdao vs Guangzhou, we have: XD Qiu Zihan/Luo Ying vs Lin Dehao/Zhong Qianxin WS Intanon R vs Sun Yu 3vs3 Shen Ye/Liu Xiaolong/Ma Jin vs Li Yisheng/Zhong Qianxin/Chen Guangfeng MS Qiao Bin vs Wang Zhengming MD Qiu Zihan/Liu Xiaolong vs Li Yisheng/Lin Dehao
I recognise the male commentator, he's Gong Weijie, ex-national player; not sure who the female commentator is.
Why did CBSL still retain the 3 vs 3 format ? Meaningless, for training or recreation purposes it's OK but not for competition, imho.