Pro Kabaddi

Pro Kabaddi league (PKL)
Countries India India
Administrator Mashal Sports
First tournament 2014
Last tournament 2017
Next tournament 2018
Tournament format Double round-robin league and Playoffs
Number of teams 12 teams
Current champion Patna Pirates
Most successful Patna Pirates (3 titles)
2018 Pro Kabaddi League season

The Pro Kabaddi League currently known as Vivo Pro Kabaddi League for sponsorship purpose is a professional-level Kabaddi league in India. It was launched in 2014 and is broadcast on Star Sports.[1]

The leagues inception was influenced by the popularity of the Kabaddi tournament at the 2006 Asian Games. The format of the competition was influenced by Indian Premier League. The Pro Kabaddi League uses a franchise-based model and its first season was held in 2014 with eight teams each of which having paid fees of up to US$250,000 to join.[2][3]

There were doubts over whether the PKL would be successful, noting that there were many leagues attempting to emulate the IPL's business model and success, and that unlike cricket, there were relatively fewer well-known players in Kabaddi. However, it was also noted that kabaddi was widely played in grassroots community settings, and could thus attract a wide variety of rural and metropolitan viewers for advertisers to target if the league gained significant traction.[2]

The inaugural season was seen by 435 million viewers, Mashal sports placing it just behind the total-season viewership of the 2014 Indian Premier League season, while the inaugural championship was seen by 86.4 million viewers.[4][5] Star Sports, the PKL's broadcaster,[6] subsequently announced in 2015 that it would acquire a 74% stake in the league's parent company Mashal Sports.[7]

For the 2017 season, the PKL added four new teams, and changed its format to split the teams into two divisions known as "zones".[8]

Format

A raid during a match of the league in 2017

The PKL's rules are similar to that of the indoor team version of Kabaddi, but with additional rules to encourage more scoring. Playing two "empty" raids in a row will trigger a "do-or-die raid", where the raider must score a point or they will be declared out. When a defensive side has three or fewer players remaining, tackles are scored as a "Super Tackle", which is worth two points instead of one.[9][10][11]

Season 1

The first signing and auction of players for the 8 teams was held on 20 May 2014[6] in Mumbai. India's national kabaddi captain Rakesh Kumar was the priciest among the players bought for ₹12.80 lakh by the Patna Pirates.[12] Sports Authority of India's Deepak Nivas was bought by Telugu Titans franchise for ₹12.60 lakh.[12] Tae Deok Eom was the highest paid overseas player bought for ₹7 lakh by Patna franchise.[12]

The duration of the season was from 26 July 2014 to 31 August 2014. There were double round robin matches along with two semi finals, third place and final games. 56 games were to be played in first round and 4 in play off stage making total of 60 games. 8 teams took part in first edition. First game was played on July 26 between U Mumba and Jaipur Pink Panthers and the final was played on August 31 at Mumbai. Jaipur Pink Panthers beat U Mumba by 35-24 to win the inaugural Pro Kabaddi League.

Season 2

Star Sports Pro Kabaddi season 2 was from July 18 to 23 August 2015. They were 60 matches played with two semifinals, a third place play-off and a final. First game was played on July 18 between U Mumba and Jaipur Pink Panthers and the final was played on August 23 at Mumbai between U Mumba and Bengaluru Bulls. U Mumba beat Bengaluru Bulls by 36-30 to win the 2015 season of Pro Kabaddi League.[13] U Mumba stood first, Bengaluru Bulls stood second and Telugu Titans stood on third position in the league.

Season 3

Star Sports Pro Kabaddi Season 3 will have two editions. The COO of Star India, Mr. Sanjay Gupta confirmed that Star Sports Pro Kabaddi wants to make Pro Kabaddi, a 5-week event, happen 10 weeks a year by having two editions a year. The idea is to play the tournament once in January–February 2016 and once in June–July 2016. It also had 8 teams. Patna Pirates beat U Mumba by 3 Points in the final in Delhi to take home the trophy. Puneri Paltan came third this season.

Season 4

The fourth season took place from June 25 to July 31, with the existing eight teams participating. Patna Pirates beat Jaipur Pink Panthers in the men's final. Season 4 also saw the launch of first professional woman kabaddi league, Women's Kabaddi Challenge (WKC). First season saw 3 teams namely Ice Divas, Fire Birds and Storm Queens battle it out to be the first ever WKC champions. The final, scheduled along with the men's final in Hyderabad, saw the Storm Queens defeat the Fire Birds.

Season 5

The 2017 season was the fifth edition of the Pro Kabaddi League, and it featured 12 teams, including new teams from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat. The team from Haryana is known as Haryana Steelers owned by JSW Sports.[14] Sachin Tendulkar co-owns the Tamil Nadu team named Tamil Thalaivas.[15] The Uttar Pradesh team is named as UP Yoddha owned by GMR group and Gujarat team is named as Gujarat Fortune Giants owned by Gautam Adani.

Auctions for the new season were held in May, before which the existing teams were allowed to retain one player each. The auction saw over 400 players go under the hammer and Rs 46.99 crores spent by the 12 teams.

The Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 started on July 28, 2017.

The most expensive pick of the auction was raider Nitin Tomar, who was bought by the Uttar Pradesh team for a sum of Rs 93 lakh. Following in second place was Rohit Kumar after the Bengaluru Bulls picked him for a Rs 81 lakhs price. The most expensive foreign player was South Korea's Jang Kun Lee after he was retained by the Bengal Warriors for Rs 80.3 lakhs.

The new season was slated to be the biggest league tournament of its kind in the history of Indian sports in terms of geographical coverage and duration. It featured 138 matches spread across a time period of 13 weeks across 11 states.

A Children's Kabaddi tournament, known as KBD Juniors, was also organised between schools of the cities in which the matches were held.

Patna Pirates Beat Gujarat Fortune Giants by 55-38 in the final with the Man Of The Tournament Pardeep Narwal stealing the show with 19 raid points against a hapless Fortune Giant defense for the first time in the tournament.

The award ceremony of the finale was hosted by Pooja Bhamrah. Pardeep Narwal was adjudged the man of the finale. Utkarsh

Viewership

As per the available data of the opening 2 weeks, Star Sports Pro Kabaddi viewership on TV increased by nearly 56% from the 2014 year’s viewership. During the inaugural season tournament viewership was 43.5 crore(435 million) viewers, which was the second in India after the 56 crore(560 million) of IPL viewership. The online viewership also increased 1.3 crore unique visitors, which is 18.5 times than of last year’s 7 lakh unique visitors. The third season which was flagged off on 30 January, recorded a surge in viewership with the opening week ratings 36 per cent higher than the week one viewership for its last season.[16]

Teams

Info on Teams

Teams Owners Captain Head coach Kit Manufacturer Kit Sponsor
Bengal Warriors Birthright Games & Entertainment Private Limited India Surjeet Singh India Jagdish Kumble TYKA fbb
Bengaluru Bulls Kosmik Global Media India Rohit Kumar India Randhir Singh Armr Karbonn Mobiles
Dabang Delhi KC DoIT Sports Management Pvt Ltd. India jogendar narwal India TYKA A Art
Gujarat Fortune Giants Adani Group India sunil India Manpreet Singh Shiv-Naresh Adani
Haryana Steelers JSW Sports India Surender Nada India Rambir Singh Khokhar T10 Sports JSW Group
Jaipur Pink Panthers Abhishek Bachchan India Anup Kumar India Jayeshree Karande Finolex Cables
Patna Pirates KVS Energy and Sports Limited India Pardeep Narwal India Ram Mehar Singh Sport Sun Birla Gold Cement
Puneri Paltan Insurekot Sports India Grish Maruthi Ernak India Ashok Shinde Equio Force Motors
Tamil Thalaivas Nimmagadda Prasad,Sachin Tendulkar,Allu arjun,Ram Charan & ,allu Aravind India Ajay Thakur India E Baskaran Admiral Sportswear Muthoot Pappachan Group
Telugu Titans Veera Sports India Vishal Bharadwaj India J.Udayakumar Field Gear Greenko
U Mumba Ronnie Screwvala Iran [[FAZAL atrachali India Bhaskaran Edacherry Adidas indigo paints
UP Yoddha GMR Group India Nitin Tomar India J Udaya Singh T10 Sports Tata Yodha

Tournament results

Two teams, Jaipur Pink Panthers, U Mumba have won the tournament once while Patna Pirates have won the Pro Kabaddi League thrice and the only champions to have defended their title twice.

Season Final Final venue # of Teams Best Raider [Most raid points] Best Defender [Most tackle points] Best Allrounder [Most (Total)points]
Winner Result Runner-up
2014 Jaipur Pink Panthers 35-24
SD = 11
Report		 U Mumba National Sports Club of India, Mumbai 8 Anup Kumar Surender Nada Anup Kumar
2015 U Mumba 36-30
SD = 6
Report		 Bengaluru Bulls Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium, Mumbai 8 Kashiling Adake Ravinder Pahal Kashiling Adake
2016
January		 Patna Pirates 31-28
SD = 3
Hindi ReportReport		 U Mumba Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi 8 Pardeep Narwal Manjeet Chillar Rohit Kumar
2016
June		 Patna Pirates 37-29
SD = 8
Report		 Jaipur Pink Panthers Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad 8 Rahul Chaudhari Fazel Atrachali Pardeep Narwal
2017 Patna Pirates 55-38

SD = 17

 Gujarat Fortune Giants Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai 12 Pardeep Narwal Surender Nada Pardeep Narwal

Position of all the teams in all seasons[18]

Team 2014 2015 2016
Jan		 2016
June		 2017
Bengal Warriors 7th 6th 4th 8th 3rd
Bengaluru Bulls 4th R 7th 6th Group stage
Dabang Delhi 6th 7th 8th 7th Group stage
Jaipur Pink Panthers W 5th 6th R Group stage
Patna Pirates 3rd 4th W W W
Puneri Paltan 8th 8th 3rd 3rd 4th
Telugu Titans 5th 3rd 5th 4th Group stage
U Mumba R W R 5th Group stage
Gujarat Fortune Giants NP NP NP NP R
Haryana Steelers NP NP NP NP 6th
UP Yoddha NP NP NP NP 5th
Tamil Thalaivas NP NP NP NP Group stage

Performance

TeamPWLTW %L %T %Best
Bengal Warriors582034434.48%58.62%6.89%3
Bengaluru Bulls562430242.86%53.57%3.57%2
Dabang Delhi561438425.00%67.85%7.14%6
Jaipur Pink Panthers603124551.66%40.00%8.33%1
Patna Pirates643920560.93%31.25%7.81%1
Puneri Paltan601935631.66%58.33%10.00%3
Telugu Titans604210870.00%16.67%13.33%3
U Mumba624315469.35%24.19%6.45%1
Gujarat Fortunegiants24165366.67%20.83%12.5%2
Haryana Steelers23136456.52%26.08%17.40%6
UP Yoddha23811434.78%47.82%17.l40%5
Tamil Thalaivas22614227.27%63.63%9.09%6

Sponsorship

Period Sponsor Tournament
2013-16 India Star Sports Star Sports Pro Kabaddi
2017-Present China Vivo Vivo Pro Kabaddi

Tournament statistics

Best Raiders [Most raid points all season]

PlayerTeamMatchTotal raid Points
India Rahul Chaudhari Telugu Titans79666
India Pardeep Narwal Patna Pirates64625
India Ajay Thakur Tamil Thalaivas80529
India Deepak Niwas Hooda jaipur pink panther 81514
India Kashiling Adake jaipur pink panther 72494
rohit Kumar

Best Defenders [Most Tackle Points]

PlayerTeamMatchTackle PointsSuper Tackle PointsTotal Tackle Points
India Ravinder Pahal Bengaluru Bulls1453760
India Sandeep Kandola Telugu Titans1655459
India Mohit Chillar U Mumba1439342
India Dharmaraj Cheralathan Bengaluru Bulls1541142
India Surendar Nada U Mumba1439241

Best All-rounders [Most (Total) Points]

PlayerTeamMatchTotal Raid pointsTotal Tackle pointsTotal PKL points
India Kashiling Adake U Mumba141143117
India Rahul Chaudhari Telugu Titans14989107
India Manjeet Chhillar Jaipur Pink Panthers166739106
India Deepak Niwas Hooda Telugu Titans15603595
India Rajesh Narwal Jaipur Pink Panthers14691483

Prize money

Prize money for the winner of Season 5 was ₹ 3 crore. The first and second runners-up were awarded ₹ 1.8 crore and ₹ 1.2 crore respectively.[19]

References

  1. ↑ "Kabaddi gets the IPL treatment". BBC News. 2014-08-07. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  2. 1 2 "Kabaddi gets the IPL treatment". BBC News. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  3. ↑ "Kabaddi deserves a league of its own: Anand Mahindra". The Economic Times. 2014-04-10. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  4. ↑ "Pro Kabaddi league viewership second only to IPL". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  5. ↑ "Simple, visceral, fun: why the ancient sport of kabaddi is enjoying a resurgence". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Pro Kabaddi league fixes players' auction on May 20". Times of India. 2014-05-17. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
  7. ↑ "Star India Buys 74% Stake In Pro Kabaddi Owner Mashal Sports". Sports Business Daily. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  8. ↑ "Pro Kabaddi League 2017: Full schedule, format, new teams and all you need to know about Season 5". Firstpost. 2017-07-27. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  9. ↑ "Kabaddi World Cup 2016: A handy guide to the format, rules and how the sport works". Firstpost. 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  10. ↑ "Kabaddi 101: Raid, defend, revive, repeat". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  11. ↑ "Everything you need to know about Kabaddi". The Indian Express. 2016-01-30. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  12. 1 2 3 Special Correspondent (2014-05-21). "Rakesh Kumar gets the highest bid". The Hindu. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
  13. ↑ "Pro Kabaddi season2-results".
  14. ↑ "Haryana Steelers Pro Kabaddi team announced". Retrieved 2017-08-18.
  15. ↑ "Sachin Tendulkar to co-own Tamil Nadu Pro Kabaddi team". Retrieved 2017-08-18.
  16. ↑ "Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League season 3 ratings rise by 36%". Indian Television Dot Com. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
  17. ↑ "Official Website for the Pro Kabaddi League". ProKabaddi.com. 9 March 2014. Archived from the original on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  18. ↑ "https://www.prokabaddi.com/standings". www.prokabaddi.com. Retrieved 2017-10-29. External link in |title= (help)
  19. ↑ "Pro Kabaddi League 2017: Consolidated prize money for Season 5 increased to INR 8 crore". Firstpost. 2017-07-15. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
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