Since the first Pro Kabaddi League game was played in Mumbai exactly nine years ago, two teams—the Jaipur Pink Panthers and U Mumba—have taken the field. The Pro Kabaddi competition has grown to be India’s second-largest sporting competition after nine seasons. Pro Kabaddi League’s birthday, July 26, 2023, feature a special show called The Rise of Kabaddi that was airwd on Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star Sports 2. This special event first allowed fans throughout India to relive the highlights from the first-ever PKL season.
Anup Kumar, the captain of U Mumba and the recipient of the Season 1 MVP Award, recalled the first-ever PKL game by saying, “We were quite scared immediately before the game started. We’d never played on a setup like that before. For us, it was a different setting. For the first time, we were performing in front of a large audience under lights. By the end of the first half of the first game, though, we had adjusted to the surroundings. We also performed our first-ever 30-second raids. We had never conducted timed raids before, therefore I can recall forgetting to pay attention to the clock.
Rishank Devadiga discussed his best recollection from Season 1 while playing with Anup Kumar in the first-ever PKL match. “Our first game was quite thrilling for us. My fondest Season 1 moment was exiting the tunnel to play the opening game. We were prepared to demonstrate the art of kabaddi to the stadium’s spectators.
Since its debut on July 26, 2014, the Pro Kabaddi League has experienced a number of historical occasions both on and off the pitch. In the first four seasons, the number of kabaddi players in the country increased significantly. The addition of four teams in Season 5 reflected this trend, and Tamil Thalaivas’ world-record bid of INR 2.26 crore for Pawan Sehrawat in the PKL 2022 Auction demonstrated the sharp rise in the players’ market value over time.
The organisers are prepared to hold the historic tenth season this year after the incredible highs in the previous nine seasons. I cannot express to you how delighted I am to watch how kabaddi has developed over the past nine years, said PKL veteran Ajay Thakur, who scored 794 raid points in 120 games. When the league completes ten seasons this year, it will be an amazing achievement. The league has changed the players’ lives and the way the game is played. We never dreamed that kabaddi players would be well-known all over the nation ten years ago.
Later this year, the Pro Kabaddi League players can’t wait to amaze the crowds as they celebrate the league’s tenth season. Dates for the Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 Auction will be released soon. It will take place in Mumbai on September 8 and 9, 2023.