New Delhi: Away from Lutyens’ Delhi, a five-star hotel’s banquet hall has been turned into a makeshift practice pitch. Blue and green mats laid out where players warm up — performing push-ups, stretching, skipping. No, it is not a cricket team staying at this luxurious Rohini Crowne Plaza hotel. The players belong to Delhi Dabang KC, a kabaddi team that’s one of the 12 franchises going to take part in the 10th edition of the Pro Kabaddi League. They are gearing up to take “panga”.
The confidence to organise a national level kabaddi league barely two weeks after India’s heartbreaking loss at the cricket World Cup is not coming out of thin air. It has taken 10 years and the scope is now visible in high viewership numbers and higher IPL-like purse money for players. And a 60 per cent increase in the sponsorship money from last year means even Bollywood’s queuing up for the franchise ticket in this new hot sport that’s not cricket. The game has expanded like never before — Kabaddi is the new cricket of rural India — nearly 30 young players from rural India have been auctioned this season. Players are jet-setting for photoshoots. Even international cricketer David Warner can’t resist its charm. He wants to give Kabbadi a shot. PKL’s 10th edition has a mission: “Duniya ki Har Saans mei Kabaddi”. Bollywood and Tollywood stars masquerading as Baahubalis are announcing the arrival of the tournament that will be hosted across 12 cities, including Noida and Lucknow.
Indian Kabaddi is now a “full-time profession” that’s luring even rugby players to drop their game and influencing International Kabaddi Federation to adopt PKL rules.
“We (kabaddi players) are practicing, shooting and flying. We meet fans at the airport, they run to click selfies with us. We feel that we are seen and recognised. It’s a great feeling,” said Naveen Kumar Goyat, captain of Dabang Delhi KC kabaddi.
Nearly a century since India helped popularise the game and over seven decades after its governing body was formed, Kabaddi is finally having its moment in the sun, not in some distant land but before its own people.
We (kabaddi players) are practicing, shooting and flying. We meet
fans at the airport, they run to click selfies with us. We feel that we are seen and recognised. It’s a great feeling
— Naveen Kumar Goyat, captain, Dabang Delhi KC
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Importing foreign talent
India has been a kabaddi powerhouse for at least four decades, based on how it dominated international competitions, but the game never really caught people’s imagination the way it is doing now. A clear marker is foreign players’ interest in the Indian league today.
Felix Li and Yuvraj Pandeya are the two foreign players in the Dabang Delhi. They bonded over the game in England and reached India last year. PKL teams can have two foreigners in their side. Pandeya, a Person of Indian Origin, left for England when he was just two. In London, his parents made him join the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) where he was introduced to the game.
“At HSS shakhas, they made us play Indian native games of Kho Kho and Kabaddi. And I liked Kabaddi very much,” said Pandeya.
At the university, Pandeya continued to play kabaddi during recess. That’s when he also introduced the game to his friends. When the kabaddi coach at the university noticed him, he made him meet Felix who was also interested in the game. Later, Pandeya exposed Felix to HSS.
PKL keeps a watch on talent in foreign countries too. Both Pandeya and Felix were in their corporate jobs when they were selected for the PKL last year after which they underwent six months of training in India.
“For us, Kabaddi was a hobby. In England, it is not played as a professional or commercial game but as a weekend game between friends,” said Felix.
Soon after landing in India, Felix realised the difference between his game and the one being played here.
“I realised that I am nowhere close to these boys. They are energetic, fit and they know their game,” he said.
Felix and Pandeya started by watching PKL matches on YouTube to understand the techniques and learn from them. This is their first season with the Dabang Delhi team.
“We are really excited. We are going for photo shoots. Today, we went to a temple,” said Felix, relishing his kabaddi journey in India.
E Prasad Rao, former national Kabaddi player and Dronacharya Awardee, said “in the UK, there was no Kabaddi. After PKL started, we sent two coaches to the country and they stayed there for 3-4 months. We contacted the sports authority there and taught kabaddi to rugby players,” said.
Rao said that expansion of the game in the West is because of the effort of the Mashal Sports in collaboration with the International Kabaddi Federation and support given to coaches and players.
In the UK, there was no Kabaddi. After PKL started, we sent two coaches
to the country and they stayed there for 3-4 months. We contacted the sports authority there and taught kabaddi to rugby players
— E Prasad Rao, former national Kabaddi player and Dronacharya Awardee
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India’s watching
A brainchild of sports commentator Charu Sharma and supported by Anand Mahindra, the PKL took off in 2014. Today, it’s the second most-watched sports league after cricket. And the numbers speak for themselves. On Hotstar, the league’s viewership touched with 222 million.
By some estimates, average cost of picking a new franchise in PKL is Rs 100 crore. From being a grassroots sport played on the mud surfaces by village boys to a five-star lobby with colorful mats where professionals raid, the sport has come the distance. When the first auction took place in 2014, the player purse was only 20 lakh and the most expensive purchase was for Rs 12 lakh. In 2023, the player purse has increased to five crore with the highest bid made at Rs 2.65 crore.
Pawan Sehrawat of Telugu Titans is the most expensive player in the PKL history. He was signed for Rs 2.65 crore ahead of Season 10.
PKL has expanded from 8 teams in 2014 to 12 today.
And this year, the league will host its 1,000th match in Jaipur and bigger brands such as Rajdhani have become the sponsors.
The ninth edition in 2022 saw 222 million viewers — a 17.5 per cent increase from the 2021 season as per the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India data.
“We have certainly made it very big. Initially, there was much skepticism about such a league. We had to try really hard to get the investors on board. Everyone around me was reluctant but finally, when the game started, it did not once look back. It is glamorous and has kept the audience hooked,” said Charu Sharma, director and co-founder of Mashal sports, organiser of PKL.
Indian captain Pawan Sehrawat becomes the highest-paid player in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League. He beat his own record from 2022, as Telugu Titans paid 2,60,50,000 Indian Rupees to acquire the services of Pawan Sehrawat.
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Grooming at the grassroots
Goyat’s journey in Kabaddi encapsulates the journey of most young boys from India’s villages. He learnt the sport from his grandfather in Haryana’s Bhiwani. Later, the game became an excuse to bunk the classes, he said. Soon, he started enjoying it and went into formal training under his coach at the Kurukshetra University. From there, he got selected for juniors.
“At that point in time, villagers would say that there is no future in Kabaddi and that I should really try for cricket or some other game,” Goyat said, stretching his arms at the makeshift indoor stadium at Crowne Plaza in Delhi.
“There was no money, no recognition, no jobs. And hence, the uncertainty. But it’s now a full-time profession,” he said.
Goyat’s love for the sport made him patient. He held on to his nerves and ended up playing junior level national and international matches as well as the Asian Games. In the sixth season, Goyat was the youngest player to enter PKL at the age of 19. Since then, he won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, given to those whose individual performance was game changing and helped the team win throughout the league, becoming the top performing player, scoring 300 points in a single season.
This year, Goyat’s team Dabang Delhi has four New Young Players (NYP). They are aged between 18 and 20 and are playing in such a big setup for the first time.
Every season, Marshal Sports, in coordination with the franchise owners, holds selection trials in around a dozen states. In these trials, Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) and state sports associations are informed about the talent hunt trails. The players from the state and adjoining areas participate in the trials. The aim of these trials is to pick talent from the grassroot for PKL.
“They send their best players who we select based on their speed and agility and get them on board. They are given coaching for three months ,” said Delhi Dabang team CEO Durga Nath Wagle.
The PKL credits its success to the incorporation of young players who are adding more energy and enthusiasm to the game.
Arjun Deswal, a native of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, has a similar experience to share. He was auctioned for the U Mumba team in Season 6 for Rs 10 lakh. At that time, Deswal had played national and international matches but was unfamiliar to what PKL was.
“I just followed the instructions of my coach Bhupender Malik and got auctioned off,” said Deswal.
Now, in Season 10, Deswal has been bought by Jaipur Pink Panthers for Rs 1.16 crore. The surge in the auction price is itself a marker of how big the game has become.
“When we play at national level, we have a certain responsibility on our shoulders. We have to represent our country. Pro Kabaddi league is the place where we are more free minded,” said Deswal.
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Bachchans said YES, SRK No
It was the U Mumba vs Jaipur Pink Panther match in 2014 that started the first innings of the PKL. But things were not always hunky dory for the league.
Charu Sharma had pitched the idea of making Kabaddi big thrice to Anand Mahindra. But only when IPL launched itself in 2008 and became a grand success by 2012, that Mahindra told Charu they could do the same with Kabaddi – make a Kabaddi league.
“The idea was amazing and I was thrilled. But then inviting investors was a big task. As Kabaddi was seen as lesser of a sport and we knew it had a huge potential,” recalls Charu.
It was when Charu and Mahindra started meeting big businessmen in their circle.
“It took a lot of convincing. We said why not try Bollywood celebrities. We started convincing Bachchans,” said Charu. But Bachchans didn’t come along very easily. It required a lot of convincing and one-to-one meeting till they relented. And now, Abhishek Bachchan is the owner of Jaipur Pink Panther team which won the ninth season of Kabaddi.
When asked about other celebrities, Charu declined to comment. But sources within the league said that SRK was approached but his team declined saying that “King Khan was not interested.”
“But that didn’t stop it from making it big,” said an official from the league.
It is when the broadcaster Star Sports took the plunge, investors started coming in. In 2015, Star Sports announced to acquire 74 per cent stake in leagues parent company Mashal Sports.
Over time, as the skepticism faded, new brands such as FUN88, Amul Macho, V John, Abros shoes, JK cement, JSW, came into play.
“We have witnessed a 60 per cent increase in the sponsorship this season. The older brands are also returning with bigger capacity this time,” said an official from league management.
The management officials said that more Bollywood stars are coming to them for the franchise.
“We are swamped with requests,” the official said laughingly.
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What’s the mat(ter)
Before the game found a new lease of life in its league avatar, kabaddi was running on low oxygen.
Mats in India came only in the 2000s. Before 2002, players were mostly playing on clay surfaces. It was Rao who understood the need of mats during the 1990s.
Mats reduced injuries and made it a clean sport.
“Earlier, even parents didn’t like their children to play in the mud. It was limited to poor people; a middle-class parent would never let their children enter the game.”
But Rao, a top-notch coach who is also technical director of PKL, had to fight big before mats were adopted.
“It was in 1991, I realised that we need to change the turf and replace mud with mats. If we wanted the game to go international, mat was the thing. You can call me far sighted but I thought Europeans don’t like to play in the mud,” said Rao.
It started with gymnastic mats in the 90s to judo mats but the mats density and hardness was not helping, recalls Rao. When Rao went to Sri Lanka in 1996 and was practicing in an indoor stadium, he saw Taekwondo mats.
“I requested the administration to provide us mats for exercise. Initially, they were reluctant but we said that we will only do stretching and give it back. And when we hit the mats, we realized that they are fit for kabbadi,” said Rao.
Not until 2002, when Rao went to South Korea with the team, he contacted a mat company for taekwondo mats but with more hardness for the game.
“We introduced mats for the first time in 2002. We tested them at the Malaysian tournament in the same year,” Rao recalls.
But introducing mats to a game which was played in the mud and was native to India was criticised by the players back then.
“They (the senior players and coaches) thought I was spoiling the game. They wanted to play in the mud. They had sentiments to the mud. They said that it was a game of poor people and I was glamourising it,” Rao said, laughingly while recalling the old conversations.
But Rao said his intention was not to glamourise but to take the game to more people.
“Now when Kabaddi has become big, the same people are appreciating me,” he said.
When we won Asia gold medal in 90s, nobody knew us. No one came to receive us. But now, the players are staying at five-stars–E Prasad Rao, former national Kabaddi player and Dronacharya Awardee
“Nobody was concerned about the players. They would give us a mattress and we would sleep on the classroom floor. Sometimes, five players in a classroom. When we won Asia gold medal in 90s, nobody knew us. No one came to receive us. But now, the players are staying at five-stars,” said Rao.
Kabaddi also opened avenues for a plethora of mat manufacturers in India.
“Currently, we source (for PKL) mats from almost 20 companies in India. Kabaddi coaches go to other countries to teach the play. Kabaddi in itself has become an industry,” said Rao.
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Transforming the rural game to a high-quality sport
Anupam Goswami, Commissioner, Pro Kabaddi League was the broadcasting head at Star Sports when the idea for a Kabaddi league was pitched. He had a huge challenge before him. To transform the rural game to a high-quality sport. And for that he had to lay a solid foundation.
Gosawami says that the game was to be made fan facing with quality competition and a good governance model.
“When we went into kabaddi. We were not going to present a traditional game for sports fans. We wanted to show a world class game to the people. That Kabbadi is India’s gift to the world,” Goswami said, sipping his lemon tea at Taj Chambers in Delhi.
It was 2013, Kabbadi was to be taken to the stadium level spectacle and create it for billions of fans. And the most important challenge that they had overlooked for long was commentary.
“We didn’t know what kabaddi commentary is. We had never seen it. We had to develop language for the commentary. To keep the audience hooked,” said Goswami.
But Goswami believes that in the past ten years they have laid a good foundation to take the game to another ten years. But that’s not it. Kabaddi has 52 per cent players from Haryana and now, the leagues are trying to train home grown players. Puneria Paltan is the result of that. All players in the team are from Pune and Maharashtra.
We didn’t know what kabaddi commentary is. We had never seen it. We had to develop language for the commentary. To keep the audience hooked–Anupam Goswami, Commissioner, Pro Kabaddi League
“There is a lot of competition. We feel that Kabaddi is Maharashtra’s game but Haryana players are everywhere. We want to reclaim it and so we are grooming our players,” said a PKL staff on condition of anonymity.
When PKL was introduced in 2014, it brought a new set of rules, including do-or-die raids. Raiders are the players who enter the opposing team’s arena and touch as many opponents as they can before they come back to their side. It’s precisely a player from the attacking side. The ones defending the raiders’ attacks are defenders. The rules were meant to make the game efficient, competitive, and appealing.
For instance, in a do-or-die raid, the team having two successive empty raids will have to play a do-or-die raid. If the team fails to score in this raid, the raider is declared ‘out’ and the opposition gets a point.
“Such was the impact of the league that in the 2018 Asian Games, the International Kabaddi Federation picked the rules of Kabaddi League and amended the old rules,” said Rao, who was a part of the new rules making.
Rao, who runs a Kabaddi academy in Kolhapur, has bigger dreams for the game. He wants the game to surpass the glamor of cricket and he is working very hard towards that.
Just like a TV umpire, and DRS in cricket, Rao batted to introduce technology in kabaddi too.
“The kind of traction, sponsors and franchise demands we are getting, in the next few years, we will have 20 kabaddi teams in PKL,” said Rao.
It’s 7:30pm. At the makeshift pitch at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Delhi’s Rohini, players are drinking their protein shake. In 20 minutes, they head out for dinner. Their day will start at 4 in the morning. With a packed schedule, they don’t have a second to lose. They are stars in the making of a sports universe Indians are going back to.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)