Guwahati, Sept. 28: The new season of the Premier Badminton League, the only professional badminton league of India, which will be held in four cities from December 22 to January 14, has got a new team representing the Northeast from the next season.

Named the North Eastern Warriors, the franchisee was formed on Monday here.

The franchisee agreement for the new team was signed between T.K. Engineering Consortium Pvt. Ltd and Sportzlive Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the latter being the licensee of Badminton Association of India for the league in the current season.

T.K. Engineering Consortium Pvt. Ltd, an Itanagar-based company, has resolved to promote development of badminton in the region to motivate youngsters to adopt the sport as a profession and open new vistas for promising talents of the region, which has been recognised as the sports nursery of the country.

It has promised to recruit top international players to raise the standards of the young local talents.

Arunachal Pradesh has, of late, embarked on a mission to promote badminton with renewed enthusiasm and dedication.

Badminton had a legacy of talents and has produced players such as two-time Olympian Dipankar Bhattacharjee in neighbouring Assam for over three decades before it faced a lean phase over the past decade allegedly because of 'lack of professional management' of the game on the part of the administrators in the state.

Currently, the only name from Assam in the international circuit is teenager Ashmita Chaliha, thanks to her sincerity and dedication and family support.

With the entry of North Eastern Warriors, the Premier Badminton League will now have eight teams.

The others are Delhi Acers, Mumbai Rockets, Awadhe Warriors (Lucknow), Hyderabad Hunters, Chennai Smashers, Bengaluru Blasters and Ahmedabad Smash-Masters.

To be held in a rolling format, the third edition of the league will have Guwahati as one of the four centres.