SWOT Analaysis of Chennai Smashers

Chennai Smashers at the launchThe second edition of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) is all geared up to start on 2nd January 2016 after getting postponed numerous times. The tournament was initially slated to start on 30 September 2014 but was postponed to January 2015 due to lack of a proper window to stage the competition in the 3 months in between.Internal conflicts between the organizing committees resulted in the postponing of the tournament to April, the same year. Another stream of conflicts resulted in a delay of two years in the commencement of the tournament. There are six teams participating in this season of the tournament among which, Chennai Smashers, the team owned by Vijay Prabhakar, the son of MLA Vijayakant has been voted in an independent opinion poll as the best team on paper.Here is a SWOT analysis of the team with a yellow jersey and a roaring lion.

#1 Strengths

PV Sindhu, one of the biggest buys of PBL 2016 will be playing for Chennai Smashers. The two-time World Championships bronze medalist will be the key player for the Smashers and will look to gain good momentum, ahead of perhaps her most important international season yet.

The experience of Chris Adcock, who played his first major tournament in 2008 at the Thomas Cup and will come in handy for the team.

With the likes of Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Simon Santoso, Pranaav Chopra to name a few, besides the formidable Sindhu and Adcock, the Chennai Smashers certainly look a very formidable unit.

#2 Weaknesses

Chennai Smashers, though they look perhaps the best side on paper, one of their major drawbacks for stardom comes from the fact that they won't be playing any of their home matches at Chennai. Despite several attempts made by owner Vijaaykar to play their home matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium at Chennai, he couldn’t get the nod as the stadium is being used to store relief goods for the flood victims.

Chennai are going to play their home matches at the Lucknow and Hyderabad. Although the team authorities had tried to get the Coimbatore stadium approved for their matches, the plea has been rejected by the authorities since the stadium doesn’t have the facilities and the capacity to hold a big crowd.

This change of the home match venue would surely be a big drawback for the team since an adopted home base may not draw the same kind of crowd as the one in Chennai might have.

#3 Opportunities

Practice sessions at the Gopichand academy

The PBL would be a platform for the Olympic hopefuls to show their worth and with the likes of young PV Sindhu in the team, this would mean that these players would give their cent percent performance. The PBL is an opportunity for every player, not just the players from Chennai Smashers, to kick start 2016 on a positive note.

Most of the Chennai players are from the Gopichand academy in Hyderabad, which is run by the national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand and this would help the team spirit factor.

These players have been playing with each other for some time in the academy and have a good acquaintance, if not a bond. The fact that Chennai will play some of their home matches at Hyderabad might turn out a good thing since most of the Chennai players are more acquainted to Hyderabad’s climatic conditions and know the place better.

#4 Threats

PV Sindhu will most likely play the Trump match

With the introduction of a ‘Trump Match’ rule, the teams need to make a careful selection of their respective Trump matches. This is due to the fact that a loss in the Trump match will result in a negative point which, in turn, will turn out a determining factor in the teams’ hopes.

The players who represent the team in a trump match will also have to be selected very carefully since the PBL rules forbid the same player to play more than two trump matches in the entire league.

In scuh a scenrio, it will be interesting to see whether the Smashers will make the match involving Sindhu as ‘Trump Match’ from the word go.