Kabaddi is a contact team sport played between two teams of seven players, originating in ancient India. The objective of the game is for a single player on offense, referred to as a "raider", to run into the opposing team's half of the court, touch out as many of their players and return to their own half of the court, all without being tackled by the defenders in 30 seconds. Points are scored for each player tagged by the raider, while the opposing team earns a point for stopping the raider. Players are taken out of the game if they are touched or tackled, but are brought back in for each point scored by their team from a tag or a tackle.
Kabaddi, is a contact sport, native to the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the most popular sports in India, played mainly among people in villages. India has taken part in four Asian Games in kabaddi, and won gold in all of them. Four forms of kabaddi played in India are Amar, Suranjeevi, huttuttoo, and Gaminee. Amar is generally played in Punjab, Haryana, the United States, Canada, and other parts of the world, mostly by Punjabi sportsmen. Suranjeevi is the most played form of kabaddi in India and the world. This is the form used in international matches generally and played in Asian Games. Huttuttoo was played by men in Maharashtra. In Gaminee style, seven players play on each side and a player put out has to remain out until all his team members are out. The team that is successful in outing all the players of the opponent's side secures a point. The game continues until five or seven such points are secured and has no fixed time duration.
Pro Kabaddi League or abbreviated to PKL is an Indian men's professional Kabaddi league. It was launched in 2014 and is broadcast on Star Sports. It is the most popular kabaddi league in the world. It is also second most watched sports league in India after the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The 2014 Pro Kabaddi League was the first season of Pro Kabaddi League. The duration of the season was from 26 July 2014 to 31 August 2014. There was 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 Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium, Mumbai. Jaipur Pink Panthers beat U Mumba by 35–24 to win the inaugural Pro Kabaddi League.
Bengaluru Bulls (BGB) is a professional kabaddi team based in Bengaluru that plays in the Pro Kabaddi League. The team were champions in Season 6 and are led by Saurabh Nandal and coached by Randhir Singh. The team is owned by Kosmik Global Media. Bulls play their home matches at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium. Bulls are one of the most successful teams in PKL history after winning the trophy for the first time by defeating the Gujarat FortuneGiants in the 2018–19 season. The team was also the runner-up to U Mumba in 2015 and reached the semifinals in the inaugural 2014 season.
Bengal Warriors (BEN) is a professional kabaddi team based in Kolkata, West Bengal that plays in the Pro Kabaddi League. In 2019, they won the trophy for the first time by defeating Dabang Delhi. The team is currently led by Maninder Singh and coached by Kasinatha Baskaran. The team play their home matches at the Netaji Indoor Stadium.
Jaipur Pink Panthers (JPP) is a professional kabaddi team from Jaipur, competing in the Pro Kabaddi League. The team is currently led by Sunil Kumar Malik and coached by Sanjeev Baliyan. The team is owned by Abhishek Bachchan. Jaipur Pink Panthers play their home matches at Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium. They are the current champions of Pro Kabaddi League after winning 2022 season.
U Mumba is a professional kabaddi team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that plays in the Pro Kabaddi League. The franchise is currently led by Surinder singh, and will be coached by Gholamreza Mazandarani, coach of Iran national Kabbadi team. The team is owned by Unilazer Ventures Pvt. Ltd with co - founders in Ronnie Screwvala and Supratik Sen. U Mumba play their home matches at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium, Mumbai.
Puneri Paltan is a professional kabaddi team which represents the city of Pune, Maharashtra in the Pro Kabaddi League. The team, coached by BC Ramesh, plays at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex. Puneri Paltan, a founding member of the Pro Kabaddi League, has been relatively unsuccessful after finishing last during its first two seasons. The Paltans did learn from their mistakes during the 2016(January) season, making the playoffs for the first time and eventually finishing third. After narrowly missing the playoffs in the 2016 (June) season, they earned a playoff spot in 2017 season. In the 2018-19 season, the team failed to qualify for the playoffs. Inconsistency has been the major reason that has hampered Pune's success throughout the Pro Kabaddi League. On 15 December 2022 Puneri Paltan beat Tamil Thalaivas in the semi-final of 9th season of Vivo Pro Kabaddi League and advanced to their maiden pro kabbadi league final to face Jaipur Pink Panthers.
Patna Pirates (PTP) is a professional kabaddi team based in Patna, Bihar, that plays in the Pro Kabaddi League. The team is led by Neeraj Kumar and coached by Narender redu. Their home ground is the Patliputra Sports Complex. The Pirates are the most successful team in PKL history with a record of winning 3 out of 8 titles and winning all of them in successive. They are also one time runners up in season 8 of pkl which started after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dabang Delhi K.C. is a professional kabaddi team based in New Delhi, India, that plays in the Pro Kabaddi League. The team is currently led by Naveen Kumar Goyat and coached by Rambir Singh Khokhar. The team is owned by Radha Kapoor and they play their home matches at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex, New Delhi. The team have won their maiden VIVO Pro Kabaddi League title defeating Patna Pirates in the 2021–22 season final.
Telugu Titans is a professional kabaddi team based in Vishakapatnam and Hyderabad that plays in the Pro Kabaddi League. Telugu Titans is a franchise of Veera Sports owned by Mr. Srinivas Sreeramaneni of Vaya Group, of NED Group and Mr. Mahesh Kolli of Greenko Group. The Titans play their home matches at G. M. C. Balayogi SATS Indoor Stadium when in Hyderabad and at Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium, when in Vishakapatnam. The Titans reached the playoffs of Season 2 and 4 in PKL.In Season 2 Telugu Titans Went to Semi Final But Lost to Benguluru Bulls 38-39.In Season 9 They Signed Best Defender in PKL Manjeet Chillar as Assistant Coach.
Anup Kumar is an Indian former professional Kabaddi player and Kabaddi Coach of PKL Team Puneri Paltan. He was a member of the India national kabaddi team that won Asian gold medals in 2010 and 2014, one South Asian gold medal in 2016 and the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup. He was the captain of the Indian National Kabaddi Team. He spent five years with U Mumba and later moved to Jaipur Pink Panthers. In 2012, the Government of India conferred the Arjuna Award on him for his achievements in the sport. He is employed as a Deputy Commissioner of Police in his native State of Haryana. On 19 December 2018, he announced his retirement from kabbadi.
Ajay Thakur is an Indian professional Kabaddi player and the former captain of the Indian National Kabaddi Team. He was part of the national teams which won 2016 Kabaddi World Cup and gold medal at 2014 Asian Games. He was awarded the Padma Shri and Arjuna Award in 2019.
The 2015 Pro Kabaddi League was the second season of Pro Kabaddi League. The season started on 18 July 2015. 56 games were played amongst 8 teams. First game was played between U Mumba and Jaipur Pink Panthers. The event was broadcast live by Star Sports in India with commentary in 5 different languages - Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, English & Telugu.
2016 Pro Kabaddi League season was the third season of Pro Kabaddi League, a professional kabaddi league played in India since 2014. Pro Kabaddi, which saw astounding success in its second season, was all set to make its much awaited return for a third season from 30 January 2016, just five months after completion of the second season. Hyderabad hosted the opening leg of Season 3, with the first match being played between Telugu Titans and U Mumba at the Titan's home turf, Gachibowli Indoor Stadium.The winner is Patna Pirates.
Rahul Chaudhari is an Indian Kabaddi player, who has played as a defender and later became a magnificent raider. He was the first player ever to score 500, 700 and 800 raid points in Pro Kabaddi League. He was a member of the Indian National Kabaddi team that won a gold medal in the 2016 South Asian Games. After six seasons with Telugu Titans and one season for Tamil Thalaivas, Rahul now plays for Jaipur Pink Panthers.
Pardeep Narwal is an Indian kabaddi player who currently plays for the UP Yoddha in VIVO Pro Kabaddi League and the Indian National Kabaddi team.Widely regarded as the greatest raider in kabaddi history, he led the Patna Pirates to three straight VIVO Pro Kabaddi titles and holds a multitude of the league's raiding records.
Manjeet Chhillar is an Indian former professional kabaddi player who currently serves as the assistant coach of Telugu Titans. During his professional career, he played for the Indian national team and won a gold medal at the 2014 Asian Games and 2014 Asian Indoor Games in Incheon. He also played for teams in the Pro Kabaddi League including Bengaluru Bulls, Puneri Paltan, Jaipur Pink Panthers, Tamil Thalaivas, and Dabang Delhi. The Government of India conferred the Arjuna Award on him for his achievements in sports. In an exclusive chat with NNIS Sports, Chhillar termed it as a 'dream' to receive the prestigious award. He was also the member of state team of Haryana and is on top of Pro Kabaddi’s all-time leaderboards for tackle points (391), successful tackles (374) and High 5s (25).
The 2019 Vivo Pro Kabaddi League was the seventh season of Pro Kabaddi League. The season began on 20 July 2019 and concluded on 19 October 2019. The zonal system present in the previous seasons was removed, and each team played against all the other teams twice.
Rahul Chaudhari (146)
Fazel Atrachali (52)
