Many noticed that the lighting on the courts at India Open last...
jonathan selvaraj@jon_selvaraj
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Jan 20, 2026
~1 min read
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Many noticed that the lighting on the courts at India Open last week was weird & patchy. Some areas were spotlit & others were in shadow. This is in contrast to other BWF tournaments - India Open (L) and All England (R). The tournament's over but thought I'd explain what happened
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Just to be clear this isn't how lighting in international badminton events is supposed to be. It's also not explained by court color. For instance this is how the court was lit at the India Open (pic 1), at last week's Malaysia Open (R) both of which were played on green mats.
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The BWF has very clear rules on what court lighting is supposed to look like. Their own rule book says ”For Grade 1 and 2 tournaments ... the minimum lighting level be 1000 lux and be able to provide even light over the court area.”
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The reason the lights were patchy was because they were miscalibrated. But they were also set up late which meant that although officials knew the lighting was uneven and not 1000 lux, they couldn't recalibrate it because it would cause further delays. sportstar.thehindu.com/badminton/indi…
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The only positive is that while embarrassing (every badminton forum has picked up on this), it's very fixable come the Worlds later this year as long as the lights are calibrated correctly. This is India Open (L) compared to Syed Modi Open (R) which was held in Lucknow last year.
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Incidentally there's a better chance of lighting getting fixed than the other issues at the India Open because apparently sponsors were super upset that their advertising boards behind the courts were lit poorly. Nothing is a better incentive than pissed off sponsors.
