Pro-kabbadi league set to rock ... why no Tamil Nadu team in the league ???

It is something we played passionately during school days – can you connect : Bengaluru Bulls; Bengal Warriors; Delhi; Jaipur Pink Panthers; Patna Pirates; Puneri Paltan; Telugu Titans & U Mumba – easy – team names of private clubs – a la IPL .... the sports is Kabbadi.

Kabaddi,  is uniquely Indian, born in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and now played across the country and even in parts of the world with a sizeable Indian population – but surprisingly,  no Tamil Nadu team in that.  The attempt is big – to fit Kabbadi in higher echelons of viewed game in thousands of crore worth broadcast rights, sponsors, sporting leagues and more.  Star India  has put its weight behind the Indian Badminton League, Hockey India League, the Indian Super League for football, and now, the Pro Kabaddi League, which starts on 26 July. The kabaddi league is promoted by Mashal Sports Pvt. Ltd in association with the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India, the official recognized body for the sport in India, the International Kabaddi Federation and the Asian Kabaddi Federation. Star India is the long-term broadcast partner.

Kabaddi dates back to ancient, even pre-historic times. In Hindu mythology, historians find resemblance with the origins of Kabaddi.  The trapping of great warrior Abhimanyu in ‘chakra vyuha’ is analogous with the game.   From time immemorial, this game has been associagted with show of physical strength and valour.  Kabaddi is basically a combative sport, with seven players on each side; played for a period of 40 minutes with a 5-minute break (20-5-20). The core idea of the game is to score points by raiding into the opponent's court and touching as many defense players as possible without getting caught; in a single breath. The raider chants – ‘Kabaddi!! Kabaddi!! Kabaddi!!’ runs into the half of opponents and has to reemerge.  The players on the defensive side are called "Antis" while the player of the offence is called the "Raider". The attack in Kabaddi is known as 'Raid'. The antis touched by the raider during the attack are declared 'out', if they do not succeed in catching the raider before he returns to his home court. The 'out' player returns on court: if his team's raider successfully tags an opponent, or his remaining team members succeed in catching the opponent's raider.

The All India Kabaddi Federation was formed in 1950 to look after the promotion of the game and the Senior National Championship started in the year 1952. Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) came into existence from the year 1972 affiliated to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) with a view to popularize the game in India and neighbouring countries of Asia. The Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF) was formed in 1978. The 1st Asian Kabaddi Championship was held in 1980. Kabaddi was then included as a demonstration game at the 9th Asian Games, New Delhi in 1982. The game was included in the South Asian Federation (SAF) games from the year 1984 at Dhaka, Bangladesh. Kabaddi was included as a regular sports discipline in the 11th Beijing Asian Games 1990 where India won the lone Gold Medal for Kabaddi-its only gold medal at Beijing. The Indian team continues to create history by winning the gold medal at each succeeding Asian Games held thereafter: Hiroshima 1994, Bangkok 1998, Busan 2002, Doha 2006 and Guangzhou 2010.

The International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) was formed during the 1st Kabaddi World Cup in Kabaddi 2004 at Mumbai in India. India won the World Cup by beating Iran in the finals. The 1st Asian Womens Championship was held at Hyderabad in 2005 and India won the gold medal.  The 15th Asian Games at Doha provided an excellent opportunity to showcase Kabaddi to many Europeans and Australians, who were responsible for organizing the Games.

The game Kabbadi still remains not so much popular in India and now there is this new attempted ‘pro-kabbadi’ in the style of IPL - 8 franchises pitting their tactics and strategies.  When the bid started,  Bengaluru Bulls, drew first blood winning the bid for  star raider, Asian Indoor Games 2013 Gold Medalist, Ajay Thakur for Rs.12.20 lakhs – Patna bought  World Cup Gold Medalist from 2007, Rakesh Kumar for Rs.12.80 lakhs.  Pro Kabaddi, a first significant initiative of Mashal Sports, takes our truly indigenous sport of Kabaddi to levels of new professionalism, which will benefit all stakeholders involved in the ecosystem of the game.  Pro Kabaddi would be an eight-city league with games to be played on a caravan basis with each team playing each other twice in July and August, 2014. The matches will be live on prime time TV by the international broadcaster, Star Sports for millions to view across India and the world. Pro-Kabbadi League (PKL) is currently supervised by Mashal Sports Managing director Charu Sharma. Sure this has enthused players and fans in a good measure.  The tournament is well-marketed, the matches live on prime-time TV, the players well paid – a dozen of them earned Rs.10 lakh or more at the auction while all eight sides nearly exhausted their 60 lakh purse – and all of a sudden, the mood in the community is cheerful.

The popularity of the game in Tamil Nadu (sad there are no teams from the State in the Pro-league) can be gauged by the fact of its affiliation in Tamil cinemas.  In Ghilli (Telegu: Okkadu) – Vijay is a kabbadi champion.  In ‘Vennila Kabbadi Kuzhu’…… the titular kabbadi team, Vennilla, finds itself by chance in a State-level tournament and dramatically enter the finals ~ the end was pathos…..  ~ a movie directed by Susindran in 2009 starring many newcomers  of whom Suri emerged bigger. It was later remade in Telugu as Bheemili Kabaddi Jattu in the year 2010.  

Away, in the recent version of IPL, more than 468 crores were spent during the  auction – the highest of them all – Yuvraj Singh was bought for Rs.14 crores by RCB; Dinesh Karthick was picked for Rs.12.5 crores by Delhi; Kevin Pietersen for 9 crores by Delhi....- and money flowed more as 5 crores went to Robin Uthappa (KKR), Murali Vijay (DD), Michael Hussey (MI) and Mitchell Starc (RCB) ............

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

21^st July 2o14.