Kuala Lumpur: The much awaited second season of Malaysia Purple League has kicked off on November 4th 2015, with all 12 teams ready to compete for total prize money of RM 2.3 million. Same as last season, highest ranked team in the Purple League’s standings at the end of the season will take home RM 1 million dollars.
As one of the participating clubs, Kepong Badminton Club (KBC), introduced their player line-up and made it official that Panasonic would serve as their title sponsor and Maxx as their main sponsor for Malaysia Purple League Season 2 at Powerful Sports Arena Kepong on Friday.
Entering the second season of Purple League, KBC has further strengthened their lineup with several new acquisitions such as Malaysian shuttler Chong Wei Feng (men’s singles), Tee Jing Yi (women’s singles), together with foreign players such as Wei Nan (men’s singles) and Reginal Lee Chun Hei (doubles) from Hong Kong. Adding these players to the squad would give the club a chance for a run at the Purple League championships.
Chong Wei Feng who played for KBC last season, told reporter at the press conference that the second season of Purple League would be tougher than the first edition.
“There are a lot of strong teams this year, including defending champions Muar City BC, Petaling Jaya BC that featured Lee Chong Wei, and Puchong United BC. These teams are going to be tough opponents for us,” said Wei Feng.
When asked about his Olympic qualifying chance, he acknowledged that it’s going to be an uphill battle for him to qualify for Rio Olympics.
“I’m at a very unfavorable situation to qualify for the Rio Olympic right now. I’ll have to do well at the 2 remaining tournaments by end of this year, and aim for breakthroughs in all tournaments before March next year. Otherwise, it’ll be difficult for me to play in 2016 Rio Olympic,” said Wei Feng.
Meanwhile, Wei Nan who defeated Lee Chong Wei in the second round of Denmark Open in October, hoped the Purple League could give him another chance to play Lee Chong Wei again.
“It’s definitely very difficult to play against Lee Chong Wei each time, but I really have enjoyed playing against him,” said Wei Nan.
“I am going to appreciate my chances playing against Lee when I can, because I may not get that chance again,” added Wei Nan.
Despite the addition of Chong Wei Feng, Wei Nan, and Reginal Lee Chun Hei, KBC lost their Purple League debut to defending champions Muar City BC with the final score of 3-15 on Friday.
