National badminton ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei has been appointed as an ambassador for the Purple League Badminton Tournament this season.

Chief Executive Officer of Purple League (M) Sdn Bhd Datuk Jack Koh said, the appointment of the world number two shuttler was made based on his smashing track record.

He noted that through the appointment, the Penangite would be able to offer his invaluable insight and experience to nurture young hopefuls and elevate the standard of play by producing a bigger pool of young players for the country.

"We feel the collaboration between both parties will enable us to work closely on the development side besides capitalising his (Chong Wei) image as a prominent badminton figure in the country," he told a press conference, here today.

Speaking of the 2016/17 Purple League Tournament, Koh said competing teams would still remain at eight but revealed that the Junior Purple League would see a second division introduced this year to nurture more talented youngsters.

"Currently, most of the competing clubs are sourcing for players from states rather than nurturing their own players and the introduction of the second division Junior Purple League will see and more new club coming onboard," Koh added.

Chong Wei, on the other hand, praised the effort by the organiser to continue the tournament which is aimed to unearth more talented young shuttlers in the country.

"I myself played in this league and also other leagues in Indonesia and China, so I think this league is among the best way for us to unearth more talented players.

"At the same time, the inclusion of a few top 10 players in the Purple League for the past two seasons will enable a few national players like Iskandar Zulkarnain to gauge their performance," said the two-time Olympic Games silver medalist.

For the record, the Muar Badminton Club (Muar BC) has won back-to-back titles in the tournament (2014/15 and 2015/16).

The Purple League Badminton Tournament was introduced in 2013 by Koh, which among others was aimed to create a brand new platform in support of the country's badminton scene while raising the standard of the sports and create future champions.