Kabaddi is the second most viewed sport amongst the Indian viewers, only second to none other than Cricket.
Kabaddi is a sport whose popularity has only grown since it made its debut in a professional league format in 2015. It had 621 million viewers in 2018. It’s unjust to say that the demand of the sport can only be catered by IPL in India. There was a huge gap of 9 to 10 months in the calendar year and hence the birth of Indo International Premier Kabaddi League (IPKL) under the aegis of New Kabaddi Federation (NKF) with DSPORT as the official broadcast partner.
Having already received the support of former Indian opener Virender Sehwag, IPKL is the newest addition to the sports leagues in India. The league also boasts of a host of known faces from the field of Kabaddi like Honappa Gowda – Former India Captain and Arjuna Awardee, and S Rajarathinam - Asian Games Gold Medalist and Arjuna Awardee joining the NKF to add strength to the league.
A nationwide hunt for budding Kabaddi talent was conducted as 16 cities who played host to a fair and transparent selection process, which received over 4,000 registrations. The league which has started from May 13 & will go on till June 4 will be following a caravan system and will feature 160 players and a total of 44 matches abiding by the Asian Games scoring format. The league will begin its journey on May 13 at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune, followed by Mysore from May 24–29 at the Chamundi Vihar Stadium and the last leg of the league will take place at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru from June 1 to June 4.
The league is going to feature eight teams who will battle it out for the first-ever IPKL title. Bangalore Rhinos, Chennai Challengers, Diler Delhi, Telugu Bulls, Pune Pride, Haryana Heroes, Mumbai Che Raje and Pondicherry Predators make up the eight teams to participate in the league. A draft process was conducted by the New Kabaddi Federation (NKF) to ensure that all the teams are able to maintain a balance and the league is as competitive as possible. The players were divided into
Grade A,B, C and D where each team has been allowed with two ‘Grade A’ players each.
Ensuring that the teams are well rewarded for their performance in the league, a total prize purse of Rs 4 crore has been decided. The winner of IPKL will be awarded Rs 1.25 crore; first runner-up will be awarded Rs 75 lakh; second runner-up will take home Rs 50 lakh whereas third runner-up will receive Rs 25 lakh. In addition, awards will be given out daily.
In order to make sure that Indian viewers are able to enjoy all the action from the league in prime time slots between 8pm and 11pm, the tournament will be brought LIVE and Exclusive to all by an extensive network of broadcast partners DSPORT (English); MTV and MTV HD+ (Hindi), India’s No 1 Youth Entertainment brand, as well as several regional networks.
