Mumbai: Team Mashal Sports, promoter of the Pro-Kabaddi League is all set to kick start the first ever Pro Kabaddi season beginning with an auction for the World\u2019s finest kabaddi talent on 20th May 2014 in Mumbai.<\/p>\n
The auction to be hosted by the \u2018Travelling Gavel\u2019 Bob Hayton, who has over 30 years of auctioning experience, will put a pool of 96 professional kabaddi players from across 14 countries, under the hammer for the 8 franchises that constitute the league – Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Vizag.<\/p>\n
All owners have been mandated to build a team of 12 players from the three categories, A, B and C, that each of the 96 players are categorized into based on their prior records and achievements. To have evenly balanced teams in the league, all owners would have to choose 4 category \u2018A\u2019 players, 6 category \u2018B\u2019 players and 1 category \u2018C\u2019 player. The twelth and final player will be picked from a \u2018State Wild Card\u2019 pool. The 32 Category \u2018A\u2019 players will be auctioned in 4 lots; 8 raiders, followed by 8 defenders, 8 all-rounders and concludes with a mixed 8. The 48 Category \u2018B\u2019 players will also be auctioned in 4 lots of 12 each and out of the 12 players in Category C, a total of 8 \u2013 one per team \u2013 will be allotted through a Double Draw system. The state wild card player will be selected by the individual franchisee based on recommendations of the state associations.<\/p>\n
The owners who include, entrepreneur and social philanthropist Ronnie Screwvala for Mumbai, The Future Group for Kolkata, Insurekot Sports (Kotak Group) for Pune, and Abhishek Bachchan for Jaipur amongst other distinguished and high-profile individuals, will have a tough task at hand but are extremely excited at building a winning team through sensible auction strategies.<\/p>\n
The Pro Kabaddi league is all set to kick off in Mumbai on the 26th of July with each of the 8 venues hosting 4 days of \u2018home\u2019 team action and all teams playing each other twice for a total of 14 league matches. The knock-out finale will be played in Bangalore between 28th and 31st August 2014. In a significant value addition to Kabaddi, these games will be spectacularly produced and telecasted live on prime time TV by international broadcaster, Star Sports.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the upcoming auction, Managing Director of Mashal Sports, Charu Sharma said, \u201cIt\u2019s a very important milestone for all of us who have joined hands to make this boldest revolution in Indian sports, a reality. The team owners are very excited of course, but imagine the enthusiasm and anticipation with which the top kabaddi players from India and many other countries are waiting for the auction drama to unfold. Kabaddi is a tough, raw, physical sport without thus far, any organised remuneration. Pro Kabaddi is setting the ball rolling to make the sport visible, attractive, professional, remunerative and, for a large section of India\u2019s athletic youth, aspirational\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mumbai: Team Mashal Sports, promoter of the Pro-Kabaddi League is all set to kick start the first ever Pro Kabaddi season beginning with an auction for the World\u2019s finest kabaddi talent on 20th May 2014 in Mumbai.<\/p>\n
The auction to be hosted by the \u2018Travelling Gavel\u2019 Bob Hayton, who has over 30 years of auctioning experience, will put a pool of 96 professional kabaddi players from across 14 countries, under the hammer for the 8 franchises that constitute the league – Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Vizag.<\/p>\n
All owners have been mandated to build a team of 12 players from the three categories, A, B and C, that each of the 96 players are categorized into based on their prior records and achievements. To have evenly balanced teams in the league, all owners would have to choose 4 category \u2018A\u2019 players, 6 category \u2018B\u2019 players and 1 category \u2018C\u2019 player. The twelth and final player will be picked from a \u2018State Wild Card\u2019 pool. The 32 Category \u2018A\u2019 players will be auctioned in 4 lots; 8 raiders, followed by 8 defenders, 8 all-rounders and concludes with a mixed 8. The 48 Category \u2018B\u2019 players will also be auctioned in 4 lots of 12 each and out of the 12 players in Category C, a total of 8 \u2013 one per team \u2013 will be allotted through a Double Draw system. The state wild card player will be selected by the individual franchisee based on recommendations of the state associations.<\/p>\n
The owners who include, entrepreneur and social philanthropist Ronnie Screwvala for Mumbai, The Future Group for Kolkata, Insurekot Sports (Kotak Group) for Pune, and Abhishek Bachchan for Jaipur amongst other distinguished and high-profile individuals, will have a tough task at hand but are extremely excited at building a winning team through sensible auction strategies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-out-of-box"],"yoast_head":"\n