Pune: In 150th Year Of Badminton, PDMBA Demands Memorial At Ammunition Factory, Khadki Where The Game Was First Played

Pune, 12th April 2021: Poona District & Metropolitan Badminton Association (PDMBA) was established in 1946 and 2021 happens to be the 75th year of its existence. PDMBA has been at the forefront of the promotion and control of Badminton in the birthplace of “The Poona Game”! The joy is doubled by the fact that 2021-2022 happens to be the 150th year of the birth of this game in Pune!

To commemorate this important milestone, PDMBA shall be organising a number of events and taking up many new initiatives. PDMBA has written to Shripad Naik, Minister of State for Defence, Government of India appealing to him to create a memorial at the Ammunition Factory, Khadki where the game was first played around 1870-1871 before it was taken to Britain where the first rules of the game were formulated in 1874.

“This memorial will become a world heritage memorial as far as the game of Badminton is concerned and would become a popular place on the tourist itinerary of Pune”, PDMBA President Aniruddha Deshpande.

PDMBA had celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1996-1997 by organising the Senior Nationals in January 1997 in a grand manner. It was the first time in the History of Indian Badminton when cash prize money worth lakhs of Rupees was paid to the prize-winners. This made a paradigm shift in the way tournaments were organised in India and today the cash prize money for Senior Nationals stands at a whopping Rs 50 Lakhs!

In its 75th year, PDMBA has once again decided to organise the Senior Nationals in January 2022 and made the necessary application to Maharashtra Badminton Association in February 2021 for the same with a request to forward the same to the Badminton Association of India. The Badminton Association of India has not yet declared the venue for the same but has mentioned in its calendar that the dates shall be January 31, 2022, to February 6, 2022, with the venue to be announced in due course.

“We are confident that the BAI shall give us an opportunity to organise the Senior Nationals owing to dual special reasons for the same and also owing to the fact that Pune has displayed its professional expertise in organising such events in a grand manner in the past”, said CA Ranjeet Natu, Hony. Secretary, PDMBA.