Corporate bigwigs like Anand Mahindra, Piyush Pandey and Rajiv Luthra join hands to launch Pro-Kabaddi League

NEW DELHI: A company promoted by corporate bigwigs Anand Mahindra of Mahindra & Mahindra, Piyush Pandey of Ogilvy & Mather and Rajiv Luthra of law firm Luthra & Luthra, along with sports commentator and quizmaster Charu Sharma, has launched the Pro-Kabaddi League that will be played between eight city teams later this year. In a deviation from the T20 cricket tournament Indian Premier League where potential team owners bid for city teams, the organiser of the league Mashal Sports has approached credible names in the corporate and entertainment world and has already picked four of the eight owners.

These include Uday Kotak, managing director of the Kotak Mahindra Group, Kishore Biyani, group CEO of Future Group, Ronnie Screwvala, former owner of the UTV Group, and Rajesh V Shah, managing director of Mukand Group. GMR and Murugappa Group, too, are close to acquiring teams in the new league.

Charu Sharma was intrigued by the response to the sport back when he was commentating in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. “We want to do more for our own sport. Unless commerce catches up, you cannot grow the sport. With a league like this, advertisers and sponsors will come in,” says Sharma.

The perception about kabaddi is that it’s only a rural sport. “But in just the city of Mumbai, there are over 200 kabaddi clubs,” says Sharma, pointing out that it’s a sport that requires no equipment and very little space.

The sport is very big in rural India, which is where the next big growth in the Indian economy will be, says Rajiv Luthra, managing partner at law firm Luthra & Luthra. “And this league will be a big avenue for rural marketing. The rural marketing guys will love it.”

Each of the right teams in the league from Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Patna and Pune will have 12 players. “This is one of the few pure international sports born and bred in India and we should to encourage our own,” says Luthra. Franchise owners will spend around Rs 5 crore every year on player fees, transport, logistics and franchise fee.

Kishore Biyani, who has bought one of the teams, sees kabaddi becoming a great spectator sport. “It is a rooted game that is becoming modern. There’s a lot of excitement in the game and can be a good spectator sport,” he says.

Even from the business point of view, there’s an opportunity to make good returns over the years. “You have to believe in something to make it work,” says Biyani, who has played the sport in his younger days.

World Sport Group is the commercial and events partner for the league. The Indian national kabaddi has won the Kabaddi World Cup since it started in 2004, the latest being in 2013 when India beat Pakistan in the final. It has also won gold in the Asian Games since 1990.