Khel Kabaddi! Why The Sport Of India’s Masses Is Going To The Next Level

The raider takes a deep breath as he prepares his assault. He starts at one corner of the ring, using that single breath in a litany. He moves forward in an almost feline prowl, looking for gaps in the defence that his seven opponents have put together.

The word he speaks over and over again is the name of the sport he loves – kabaddi. The raider has reached the baulk line, the first line that he has to cross to make his assault legal. He contemplated going for a bonus point; not an easy feat, because he’d have to breach the bonus line and make his way back to his side of the ring to make it count.

Instead, in the blink of an eye, he darts across the baulk line and in the same motion leaps to his left. He’s tagged one, two, three opponents. And now he’s vaulted himself beyond the reach of his opponents. He lands on the mat and propels himself towards his team’s half, towards the line of safety.

He’s made it. He lets out a breath, and raises a fist in the air in victory. The crowd erupts. It’s a super raid!

This scene is not so different from the ones that play out when the Pro Kabaddi League is live. The league started in 2014 and three years, and five seasons later, it has come to eclipse every sport save cricket in television viewership and engagement. “I would say that India is also a kabaddi obsessed country, which is what we realised as we went along,” said Supratik Sen, the chief executive officer of Unilazer Sports, the company that owns Mumbai-based pro-Kabaddi team U Mumba.

Pro Kabaddi: The Impact

The Pro Kabaddi League, now called Vivo Pro Kabaddi, after Chinese smartphone maker Vivo became title sponsor in May, is a competition that was started by Mashal Sports and Star India in 2014. It is organised by Mashal Sports, which was founded by Anand Mahindra and Charu Sharma. The league started with eight teams. This year, in the fifth season, four more were added.

The league, even in this short span, has had an impact on various levels. Most importantly, it has changed the fortunes of several promising young Kabaddi players.

“The average athlete was earning between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000, because they were doing these odd jobs, or they were employed by the armed forces, or public limited companies,” said Sen, describing the situation before the introduction of the league.

Now, the talent pool is spreading and deepening, with several players from India’s hinterlands working towards participating in the league.

The other impact, of course, has been for the business owners. Very quickly, they’ve seen viewership ratcheting up. That opens up the possibilities of lucrative marketing deals that would make any entrepreneur in sport sit up with interest.

Star India, the principal owner of the Pro Kabaddi League, is likely to have generated over Rs 150 crore in advertising revenue in the recently concluded fifth season, according to a Livemint report. That’s more than double what they earned in the previous one.

For the owners, though, the real payday hasn’t yet arrived.