The tournament is the only one of its kind having separate team and open events for men and women. The team championships for the Sudirman Cup will be played from May 10 to 15 on a league basis, while the World Championships for open events is scheduled from May 16 to 23.

India, who finished 19th in the last edition of the Sudirman Cup held at Glasgow (Scotland), are clubbed in Group 3 A along with Canada, Finland and Austria. India are favourites to win the Group, and if they do so, they will play winners of Group 3 B consisting of Australia, Hong Kong, Norway and Ukraine, for a berth in next edition's Group 2.

The team comprises Pullela Gopichand, Abhin Shyam Gupta, Sachin Ratti, SrikantBakshi, Jaseel P Ismail, U Vinod Kumar and Vincent Lobo in the men's section, Aparna Popat, PVV Lakshmi, Manjusha Kanwar, Neelima Choudhary and Archana Deodhar in the women's category.

Archana was included in place of an injured Madhumita Bisht. Chief coach SM Arif, assistant coach Uday Pawar and manager Vinod Dhawan will accompany the team.

Speaking on the occasion which also marked the conclusion of a month-long camp here, Prakash Padukone, the executive president of the Badminton Association of India (BAI), announced that BPL, who have been sponsoring many a badminton tournament in the country, will sponsor the National team's international trips for a period of three years. However, the amount is undisclosed. The company, to start with, will sponsor the Copenhagen-bound team.

Chief coach Syed Mohammed Arif was confident of putting up a creditable show as all the team members are fighting fit and brimming with confidence. Arif said emphasis was given on training to overcome pressure, shadow play,weight training, strength building and the like, but added that most of the work was specified on court movement.

The team will head for Denmark from Delhi on Friday.