Reach For A Cant, Leap For The Stars

Raiders from the new ark—TV’s Pro-Kabaddi League—are India’s new heroes who earn in crores

- Qaiser Mohammad Ali

SOME time after the IPL spot-fixing case was at its messy nadir in 2014, casting a dark shadow over the sport itself and denting the image of the BCCI, Vidarbha Cricket Association president Prakash Dixit was having a meal with friends at a club in Nagpur. The giant-sized TV was beam ing a cricket match. One of Dixit’s friends called out to change the channel to the one showing the Pro-Kabaddi League (PKL) live. “We were in CP Club, and a friend said, let’s switch from cricket to kabaddi, which was more thrilling and enjoyable,” recalls Dixit. It was a rare instance of a die-hard cricket fan swapping allegiance. 

The incident illustrates how many fans have started seeing beyond cricket as their first-choice and openly embraced kabaddi after the advent of PKL in 2014. And why won’t they? The tension that grips the viewer when a fleet-footed raider darts into the competing team’s area, teasingly hovering like a bee, arms appraisingly outstretched for a touch, is palpable. Likewise, one is on the edge as the broken phalanx of players circle around the intruder, plotting the perfect entrapment, before the perfectly-timed lunge and grapple that ends so many audacious forays. Besides, this great game is among a few—chess is another— that can be called truly Indian.

Kabaddi has another claim to being a crowd favourite. The Indian men teams have won all seven men’s gold medals at the Asian Games since the inclusion of the sport in 1990, and both gold medals in the women’s category. Indian men have won all three World Cups held so far. But these exploits didn’t earn as many fans as the PKL has done over the last four years, with many players becoming household names by dint of their on-mat exploits.