When the idea was presented, in the early 2010s, to bring kabaddi -- a traditional, largely rural, sport -- to air-conditioned stadiums in urban cities and showcase it with jazzy television-friendly graphics, it did not have many takers. The IPL was at the time India's only successful, mainstream league, and completely dominated the country's sporting landscape.
Today, it's fair to say that the Pro Kabaddi League has revolutionised the sport of kabaddi, transforming it -- thanks in part to tweaked, TV-friendly rules -- into a modern sport for a modern audience. The players, who had been sceptical about its viability when told of the early plans, were convinced only after they were featured in photoshoots and promotional video campaigns. Their successors have been made into superhero figures, with one even nicknamed Baahubali.
The growth has been in every facet:
The league itself has grown from eight teams to 12 -- the entry of new teams an endorsement of the PKL's popularity, with investors willing to bet on it.
Today's players are earning multiples of the early-season paycheques. Rakesh Kumar was PKL 1's most expensive player, earning Rs 12.8 lakh; current India captain Pawan Kumar Sehrawat was signed by Telugu Titans this year for Rs 2.6 crore -- more than 20 times the value.
PKL is also now a magnet for international stars, attracting players from 12 countries. It's a bit of a double-edged sword: the PKL was also indirectly credited for Iran's upset of India at the 2018 Asian Games.
In viewership terms Star Sports Network*, the league's official broadcaster, says the current season has clocked 226 million viewers in the first 90 matches - a 17% increase in reach compared to Season 9. In fact Season 10 has already surpassed last year's viewership figures, with the playoffs and finals yet to be played.
All this, and more -- fan engagement, for example, as is evident if you watch a match at the stadium -- makes the PKL comfortably India's second-most-watched sporting league. It's grown, on several parameters, from strength to strength. But what's next? How can the PKL sustain this success -- and expand even more?
Film producer Ronnie Screwvala, one of the league's original backers and owner of former champions U Mumba, believes it still has a lot of potential to grow. "I would say that the initial growth was certainly exponential and as a team owner we broke even pretty much straight away. I do think, though, there could have and should have been substantial growth thereafter as well with the second round of media rights with more than 330 million people tuning in and kabaddi firmly becoming India's second sport."
He was referring to the auction of PKL's media rights in 2021, where Star India* retained the media rights for Rs 905 crore for a 5-year period. That fee translated to Rs 181 crore per season, reportedly double of what the earlier annual media rights fee was. However, Screwvala feels more can be done to unlock PKL's true potential.
"We're yet to unlock the full potential and value of the sport and we need pushes in the right direction, whether it be media rights, sponsorships or the overall growth of sport in an organized manner too," he says. "With the media rights of the Women's Premier League being Rs 950 crores in year one, given the substantially larger audience of PKL now in its 10th season, we should hopefully generate the growth that PKL deserves over the next 5-6 years."
That bullish forecast is what encouraged Capri Sports, part of the financial advisory firm Capri Global, to take over the Bengal Warriors franchise in 2023. Apurv Gupta, Capri Global's head of contact sports, says their decision to join the PKL fold was driven by the league's success on multiple fronts.
"When you're entering into Indian sports and you're looking to grow a business, any entrepreneur, any businessman, any business house would look at kabaddi because it has sustained itself so beautifully over the last 10 years. In terms of viewership, player profiles, player salaries and the sustaining of the league through the bio-bubble -- all the angles of the sport have grown."
Preventing a plateau
The PKL was initially driven by the league and its owner broadcasters. The feeling is that, going forward, the growth will need to be franchise-driven, player-association-driven. The conversation is easier now for the league, with many franchise owners involved across sport (like JSW with Haryana Steelers in the PKL, Bengaluru FC in the ISL and Delhi Capitals in the IPL), but it remains a challenging one.
Suhail Chandhok, CEO of U Mumba, feels an "active role is needed from everyone involved to ensure we aren't sitting back and expecting the sport to grow itself over the next crucial phase."
"It's about [franchises] creating their true brand value," says Nic Coward, an expert advisor to the PKL who has also worked on top global sports events such as the Premier League. "It should be an asset growth story. Ultimately, these are owners of a franchise in a league who are building that value. And I still think sometimes that there's a great disparity between the franchises. Some absolutely understand, not least because they have a portfolio perhaps now of different properties (like a JSW)."
The league, then, has to treat franchises as different and unique. "And you want this because you want a difference in your league." He takes the example of Puneri Paltan, who revisited the idea of what their franchise should be early on. They felt there was a lack of players in India and the only way to address that issue was by setting up an academy to create a pathway and have homegrown players make up their team.
Academies -- as a reliable and consistent feeder system for the teams -- are crucial for the growth of any league. As of now, only three teams have academies: Puneri Paltan, UP Yoddhas and Tamil Thalaivas, with a majority of the players in the league coming from private academies run by PKL coaches or from the numerous Sports Authority of India centres. However, for a bigger pool of players, it would largely benefit teams all across if they can set up a feeder system to unearth the next-gen of kabaddi stars.
Kailash Kandpal, CEO of Puneri Paltan, says the team took inspiration from football clubs and cricket leagues. "We saw that the sport was picking up, but there was a shortage of players in the pipeline. So, we decided to develop talent from the grassroots and get a new supply of players for our team's sustenance."
Their idea was to recruit players between the ages of 16 and 17 so that by the time they joined the PKL-fold around the age of 20, they would have reached the peak performance point of their careers.
"We have players from across the length and breadth of the country. It's not that we only have players from Maharashtra because we're Puneri Paltan, we have boys from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana and Punjab as well. And we have shown them that there is something for all of them here, they can make it to the A team if they do well."
It's also something that the PKL's Mr. Consistent Maninder Singh -- the only current player to have played in the inaugural season -- would like to see going forward: more teams paying attention to the grassroots. "A few teams have academies and that has helped them prepare players before they join PKL, which adds stability. Like in football, clubs have players from the U14 level who then grow into the senior team. It would be great if we had a similar system in kabaddi too."
Also, says Chandhok, it's important to have an ecosystem for the players during the non-PKL months.
He says, "I think player education is a big element that could come in to ensure that the athletes remain professionals for the nine months of the year that players aren't playing the PKL. I also think that the ecosystem itself needs to grow as a whole by welcoming new stakeholders that want to take the sport to new parts and grow it, whether that be in India, or at the grassroots level in an organised manner or to take the sport globally and send coaches from India abroad to bring new nations to the sport."
There is only one initiative so far that has sought to bridge the gap -- the Yuva Kabaddi Series [YKS]. Launched in 2022 by Suhail Chandhok and Arvind Sivdas, the YKS is played thrice each year and caters solely to players below the age of 23. The idea behind establishing the YKS was to provide a professional platform for junior players and also double up as a feeder system.
Each match is streamed online, giving young players an avenue to showcase their skills and attract opportunities to play for PKL teams, which are otherwise largely limited to trials. A leading example is Sudhakar M, whose stellar showing in the YKS earned him a call from three-time champions Patna Pirates this season.
More rule changes
There's also room for more technological innovation -- those rule tweaks were crucial to kickstart the league and, 10 years down the line, there are more being planned.
E Prasad Rao, the PKL's technical director fondly known as "Kabaddi Rao", explains. "We are still making changes to the rules. On day 1 we got a mud sport to the mat and changed small rules and now we are getting into complicated rules, like the lobby rule. I tell all the international kabaddi bodies - the PKL is the biggest laboratory where we can do experiments. Like the lobby rule, for example, we changed it and now, after the Asian Games, everyone sees why we made the change."
He adds, "We're trying to inculcate a way where if a player is tagged, then like the bails in cricket, something should be lit up. Or if someone crosses the line, then there should be a light to signify that."
The League is also open to amending the game's format, with PKL commissioner Anupam Goswami saying they're mulling over the idea of introducing the tiebreaker rule in the league stage. As per the current rules, teams get three points each if they are engaged in a tied contest. "One exciting prospect under consideration is the extension of the tiebreaker format, currently reserved for the playoffs, into the league stages of the tournament. This strategic initiative could transform each match into a decisive contest with a clear win or loss outcome for the competing teams," he says.
It's also a fact that the PKL has so far not tapped into the women's sport; all the growth has been limited to the men's game; there's now a realisation that it's time to change that and bring India's women kabaddi players -- who have been successful in international competition -- into the system.
The PKL did in fact stage a women's tournament in 2016, a three-team exhibition event called the Women's Kabaddi Challenge. It never returned, however.
Now, franchise owners such as Abhishek Bachchan, who owns reigning PKL champions Jaipur Pink Panthers, have openly expressed their interest in hosting a women's PKL. The League's organisers said in March 2023 that they were exploring the possibility of a women's tournament, but that has so far only remained a statement.
The PKL is now in a position of strength and with that comes the responsibility to ensure the overall growth of the sport. A women's tournament would reflect the PKL's 360-degree vision. Leave the last word with Prasad Rao: "Now if you say "kabaddi" people don't know...but they all know 'Pro Kabaddi'. That's an incredible achievement for a sport -- and, though its future is in uncharted territory, the track record suggests its growth is a given.
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