Viet Nam will play the hosts Indonesia in the first match of the Axiata Cup on Thursday in Surabaya, where they hope to triumph in badminton's richest team championship and take home the US$400,000 prize.

The Vietnamese start the event with their strongest players including world No 9 player Nguyen Tien Minh and Youth Olympic bronze medalist Vu Thi Trang.

Meanwhile, the host side will be represented by leading athletes such as Sony Dwi Koncoro, Simon Santoso and Tommy Sugiarto.

Other teams at the tournament are All-Star Europe, All-Star Asia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The top four teams with the highest number of points after the preliminary round will progress to the semi-finals where there will be a re-draw to determine the match-ups. Both the semi-finals and finals will be held in Kuala Lumpur over two days starting on April 13.-VNS