World Kabaddi league (WKl), which its promoters claim to be the first professional Kabaddi league of the world, on Thursday announced the franchisees names and logos of its teams in presence of Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Sukhbir Badal, who is also the president of the league.
The international-level league, slated to kick off on August 9, will have eight international teams including those owned by Bollywood actors Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha and rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh.
While Kumar has bought Speedy Singhs along with Fastway Sports Development Pvt. ltd., a subsidiary of Fastway Transmissions, Honey Singh owns Yo Yo Tigers, named after his own name. Both the stars were present on the occasion.
The other teams are Vancouver lions owned by Gurjit Singh Purewal; Haryana Focus, owned by R and AAR Communication, an off-shoot of Focus Television; Punjab Thunders owned by Thind Properties. It is also co-owned by Bollywood actor Rajat Bedi.
United Singhs, co-owned by Sonakshi Sinha and California Eagles, owned by the Tut Group are the other teams.
Stressing on the need to take the sport to a global stage, Badal said: “You can say that people in India think of only one sport and I think there are so many sports which can be encouraged so I took up this challenge to make this one sport reach the international level.”
Former Indian hockey player Pargat Singh, who is commissioner of WKl, explained that the new league was completely different from the Pro Kabaddi league that is starting from July 26. “WKl is completely different in the sense that this is Kabaddi in circle style which is a pure Punjab style, while Pro Kabaddi is played in national style. Circle style is more aggressive than the national style,” Pargat said.
Asked what his government was doing anything to promote the sport at the grassroots level in Punjab, Badal said: “In Punjab, my plan is to create one Kabaddi stadium in each district and block of Punjab within the next two years. Not very big ones but small stadiums to encourage the sport.”
Badal, who is the mind behind the league, further hinted that even women’s teams can be included in the upcoming league in future. “Once we build up this Kabaddi league, the next step would be to make women’s teams a part of it in future,” Badal revealed.
The league will see 86 matches to be played in 13 international cities during a four-month long calender.
A prize money of `3.5 Crore has also been announced for the winner team with the salary of each player pegged at `15 crore, higher than that of the Pro Kabaddi Team.
WKl recently signed up with India’s sports and entertainment channel Sony SIX for its broadcast coverage in India.