Miscalibration of lights casts dreary shadow on India Open Badminton 2026

After winning his opening round match at the India Open last week, Canada’s Victor Lai had said he found it difficult to adjust to the bright lights at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. Lai reckoned his discomfort, though, was due to unfamiliarity.

Although Lai was a bronze medallist in the men’s singles competition at the 2025 World Championships, he has only played infrequently at the higher level of the badminton world tour — the India Open is only his second World Tour 750 event. “I still need to get used to playing in these sort of conditions,” Lai told reporters after his match.

However, Lai wasn’t wrong. There was something odd about the lighting on the courts at the Indira Gandhi Stadium. Viewers remarked that the lighting on the court was patchy, with some areas of the court well-lit as if by a spotlight and others partly shaded. The lighting was particularly problematic on courts 3 and 4, which were to either side of the television courts in the middle of the indoor stadium. This was in contrast to every other BWF World Tour event, where lighting is evenly spread across the court.

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In at least one match, the men’s singles quarterfinal between Christo Popov and Jonatan Christie, the former seemed to lose sight of two shuttles which eventually landed well inside the court. This was noted even by commentators observing the match.

It is learned that the BWF itself was aware of the fact that the lighting in the stadium fell short of the BWF’s own regulation, which states: ”For Grade 1 and 2 tournaments it is a requirement that the minimum lighting level be 1000 lux and be able to provide even light over the court area.”

BWF regulations state that the minimum lighting level should be 1000 lux for grade 1 and 2 tournaments. The lights were evenly spread out at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium (in pic) during the Syed Modi International event.
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The regulations also state that “it is a requirement that lighting not be positioned directly over the playing area to avoid glare and lighting causing difficulties seeing the shuttle. Lighting behind the playing area shall be focused in a way not causing difficulties seeing the shuttle but lights should preferably be positioned along the sides of the court.

This clearly was not the case at the India Open, where some areas were glaringly bright, and other areas were dark. The India Open has previously been conducted without any issues with the lighting. It features 64 strobes directing their light across four separate courts. However, it is learned that the cause of the mismatched lighting in this edition was that the lights were miscalibrated.

There was also a delay in the lights being set up, which in turn delayed the setup of the Hawkeye system, which is used when players challenge line calls. If the lighting was recalibrated, it would have caused further delay for Hawkeye.

The calibration error in the lighting could not be rectified through the tournament since it would have required further Hawkeye setup changes.
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

While officials admitted the patchy lighting looked poor on television, didn’t provide the standard ‘1000 lux’ across all areas of the court and left many areas in shadow, it was not feasible to recalibrate the lighting over the course of the tournament.

However, it is also learned that the poor lighting wasn’t a fundamental issue with the stadium and can be corrected for the World Championships in August provided the lights are rightly calibrated.

Sportstar has reached out to the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for an official statement on the quality of lighting at the India Open and will update this story when it is provided.

Published on Jan 19, 2026