net line

Ball badminton

Ball badminton is an indigenous sport of India. It is a racquet game played with a woolen ball upon a court of fixed dimensions. This game was played as early as 1856 by the royal family in Tanjore, capital of Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu, India. The game is widely prevalent in India.

Ball badminton is mostly played in day light and outdoors. As a result, climatic conditions do influence the trend of the game. Game rules were modified to distribute the effects of the climate, more or less evenly on both teams. In the recent years there are indoor versions of the game, played under flood lights. A good number of All India Tournaments have been conducted regularly using flood lights in Tamil Naidu, Pondicherry, Andhra and Karnataka.



Ball Badminton is a team game.

The Ball: A ball of yellow colour made of wool shall not be less than 22 grams and not more than 23 grams in weight and not less than 5 cm and not more than 5.5 cm in diameter.

The Racket: A standard Ball Badminton racket usually weights from 200 grams to 250 grams and 63 cm to 70 cm in total length. The gutted elliptical area of the racket shall be 20 cm to 22 cm across and 24 to 27 cm lengthwise.

The Net: The net shall be made of fine cord to make 2 cm square mesh all along and shall be edged with a red tape flush at the top. It shall be tri-coloured (red tape, white and blue body). The net shall be 100 cm wide and 13.5 meters in length. When tied, a centre pole of 183 cm and two poles of 185 cm at the extremities shall be used to maintain 183 cm height of he net at the centre.

Posts: Two posts each 2 meters height shall be fixed at a distance not exceeding one meter outside the court on either side at the end of the net line to which the net is tied. These shall be sufficiently strong to keep the net well stretched. A book must be fixed at 1.5 meters height to each pole for the convenience of tightening the net whenever necessary.

The Court: The size of the court for the fives shall be 12 meters in width and 24 meters in length. It is divided across the middle by a net line over which the net is suspended, the ends of which are attached to the tops of the two posts. One meter away from each side of the net line and parallel to it area drawn or marked the serving crease lines. Half way between the serving crease lines and parallel to the side lines is drawn the centre line dividing the space on each side of the crease line into two equal parts called the right and the left courts.

Note: The boundary lines are to be marked clearly with ropes of white colour and 5 mm thickness. The centre and crease lines are to be marked clearly so that these are visible and shall be about 10mm thick.

The play


a) In each game immediately after the first 8th, 15th and 22nd point the teams shall change the sides and the server shall serve from the right court or left court as he would have done in the normal course if the side was not changed. That is to say, if the server had served from the right court obtaining a point necessitating the change, he shall serve from the left court after change of side. Similarly he shall serve from the right court if point was gained from the left court before the change.

b) The ball shall be served by a player underhand and below the waist; it shall go clear over the net and beyond the serving crease line on the other side of the net.

(A service shall be considered overhand if the ball at the moment of being struck by the racket is higher than the service waist. The point to be remembered is that a service shall be declared overhand only if the ball at the instant of being struck, i.e. when it actually touches the racket, is higher than the server’s waist. An overhand service is a fault.


d) No player shall strike the ball more than once consecutively.


Note: Ordinarily the players of the receiving side are expected to be ready.

f) During the progress of the game the player must not leave the court except when he does so in the act of playing or when he meets with an accident or for any good reason with the permission of the umpire.

Note: Changing a racket, tying the shoe lace, tightening the belt etc. Cannot be considered as leaving the court. But players shall involve in such activities only after getting the permission of the referee. Referee shall normally acceed to the request of the players for such activities when the ball is not in rally. However the referee will have the final right to refuse, if he is genuinely convicted that such activities are purposeful delaying tactics.

g) (i) In the case of fives tournament the team consists of eight players whose names are furnished before the commencement of the tournament and any five of them shall play while the other three shall be physically present in the prescribed playing uniform with the team manager outside the court. In the case of a doubles tournament it shall be a team of three players, the other stipulation remaining the same.

(ii) During the course of any match of two or three games, Three substitutions/changes of players shall be allowed in each game if required by the captain/manager of the team subject to rule 6 (g) (i) above. The substitution can be made at any time during the game. Once the game is stopped on request for making a substitution, the substitution should be executed.

Note: Once the three substitutions are availed no further substitution shall be allowed during that game under any circumstances.

(h) No change of ball shall be allowed in a match during the set of three games.

Note:- In the event of a ball getting deformed or otherwise unfit for use during the course of the game, a change may be allowed by the umpire at his discretion in the matter.

(i) If a fault is made by serving team serving hand shall be down and the next player shall serve. If all the five hands are over the receiving team shall get the chance to serve. But if a fault is made by the receiving side, the serving side shall be awarded one point and the same hand continues.

(j) The serving team shall always have five hands to serve even at the commencement of every game and each player shall serve in succession till all the hands are down.

Faults: It is a fault. (a) If the server is not stationary is not stationary while serving.

Note: A server shall be considered to be stationary only if both his feet touch the ground at the time of service. It is sufficient that any portion of each of the foot touches the ground while in the act of service. Foot fault shall be declared only if any feet is raised above the ground and held in suspension while in the act of service. Act of service means preaction, striking the ball, and followup action.

(b) If the server misses his stroke in serving. (c) If the ball is served overhand (See Rule 6(b) for explanation). (d) If the service is delivered from the wrong court. (e) If the ball is not returned before it touches the ground. (f) If the ball served drops. (i) In the wrong court or (ii) On any line (including centre, serving crease, side and boundary lines) or

g) if a player serves out of his turn, (A player is said to serve out of his turn if he serves before the previous server is out) In such a case the hand of the previous server shall be treated as down and the present server shall be asked to reserve irrespective of the server wins or loses a point.




k) If it is a ‘clash’. That means when the rackets of two or more players clash in playing the ball before, during or after striking the ball.


m) If the ball is sent out of bounds. The player is at liberty to take a ball going out of bounds but if he attempts and misses it is a fault.

n) If the ball touches any player or his dress whether inside or outside the court.

o) If the player in the act of striking crosses his racket either over the net or touches the net.

p) If the ball fails to clear the net either in serving or in returning.

q) If the ball touches the top of the net.

r) If the serving ball falls on any line. But a ball in rally becomes a fault only if it fails on the boundary lines; it can fall on the centre and crease lines.

s) If the ball is tapped on the ground before serving even after warned by the umpire to play. t) If delay is caused in serving by passing on the ball, from one player to the other after the umpire asked to serve.

The match

The match consists of three games. The team that takes the best of three game shall be declared as winners. The objective of the game is to score 29 points. The team that first reaches the score of twenty nine are declared the winners. A coin toss at the commencement of the match decides the choice of sides or right of first serve.

The ball is served from one side and is considered to be in play until it touches the ground (or a 'fault' or 'let' is given by the umpire).

The umpire determines the conditions under which play could be terminated. The umpire also replaces the ball if it is determined to be lost or deformed. In the event of a match being suspended by the umpire for reasons of light or weather or any other reasons it will be continued from the point at which it was stopped. In the event of tie between two or more teams in any tournament, matches shall never be replayed. Ranks on the basis of game score and on the basis of point score if tie still persists, shall be declared.

The umpire is assisted by two or more line referees. They are responsible for the boundary lines and one half of the side line. If the umpire calls a fault and corrects himself a let shall be allowed if the striker out fails to return the ball.

The umpire, in addition to his other duties, shall also look after the net. He shall announce the score on behalf of the scorer whenever a point is scored or a sever is out. In announcing the score, he shall call first the number of the serving hand, then the score of the serving team and then the score of the other team.


In a league tournament when two or more teams finally have same number of matches won/lost to their credit. It is difficult to declare which one is a better team among them and we say that the team are tied up. A tie may be there between any numbers of teams. When the tie arises we look at the game score of the tied teams.

Game Score: We will record for each team the number of games won in favour and lost to from each match played in the league. While doing so we remember each match is played for best of three games. Therefore a team winning a match after three games it will have two games in favour and one game against. But If a team wins a match in straight two games it will have three games in favour and zero games against. Similarly the team which lost will simultaneously get one game in favour and two games against or zero games in favour and three games against as the case may be. Finally the differences between the total number of games in favour and against is made for each team which is known as game score. The team with the highest game score shall be declared as the best and next highest as the next ranking team among tied up teams. However, if again two or more teams tied up with the game score also their point score in the league is computed.

Point Score: We tabulate the points scored in favour and lost to in each game and for all the matches played in the league by the terms tied up with game score. While doing so far a team which won the match in straight two games, after recording the points scored in favour and lost to in the two games played we should also record 29 points in favour and zero points against for the third game that the opponent team could not qualify to play even. Correspondingly we record zero points in favour and 29 points against for the defected team. Then the difference of the total points scored in favour and lost to from all the matches will be found. At that stage the team securing the highest net points shall be declared as the best and the next highest as the second best etc. for further details see the example worked out.


t) No match is won unless played out or given up except in the case provided for in sub rule (f) above.


9. Discipline: In view of the umpire, if a player misbehaves in the court that brings discredit to the referee/other players/officials lowering the image of the game, umpire shall warn the player. After the first warning the umpire will show yellow card at second instance. This indicates that the player will be sent out of that match by showing a red card, at the third instance when the team has to finish that game with the remaining four players only.

Example: Five teams abcd and e played league. The results are given below. Give the ranks I to 5 them.

Results: a lost to b 24-29, 29-20 and 26-29 a beat to c 29-18, 28-29 & 29-12 a beat to d 29-14, 26-29 & 29-15 a beat to e 29-26, 24-29 & 29-21 b beat to c 29-27, and 26-29 b beat to d 29-24, and 29-22 b lost to e 29-18, 16-29 and 24-29 c lost to d 20-19, and 18-29 c beat to e 29-24 and 29-20 d lost to e 28-29 and 16-29


Mr. Natarajan, owner of J.K. Industries was a renowned player. He was also the chennai secretary of this game. His sons Mr. Boopesh and Mr. Karthick have played several times nationals representing Tamilnadu.

Arjuna Awardees:

  • Rajaraman of Indian railways.
  • Sam Christy Das of Kerala.
  • Khaleel of Tamil Nadu

See also

kavi kumar

External links


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