And the Pro Kabbadi 2 winners are U-Mumba!
In the final match, between last year's finalists U-Mumba and Bengaluru Bulls, U-Mumba won by 36-30. In the third place match held earlier, Telugu Titans beat Patna Pirates 34-26. The winners will receive Rs.1 crore and the runners-up will get Rs.50 lakhs. Abhishek Bachchan, Nita Ambani, MS Dhoni, Saif Ali Khan and Alia Bhatt were seen cheering the teams on in the arena.
The first significant initiative of Mashal Sports, Pro Kabaddi planned to take the indigenous sport of Kabaddi to levels of new professionalism, This would benefit the stakeholders and all those who are involved in the game. This effort was backed by the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), the Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF) & the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI).
Pro Kabaddi League was walking on parallel lines with IPL with big businessmen and actors buying stakes in the teams. Bollywood actor, Abhishek Bachchan who bought the Jaipur franchise had reportedly named it Jaipur Pink Panthers. The other big franchise owners were namely Ronnie Screwvala, Kishore Biyani and Radha Kapoor among others.
The first-ever Pro Kabaddi League Auction saw big bucks spent on national players. The Patna franchise bought national kabaddi team captain Rakesh Kumar for Rs 12.8 lakh; three times the base price of Rs 4 lakh. 96 players in all were auctioned. They were segregated into three categories — A, B and C, according to the levels (state, national, etc) at which they played.
Every team of the Pro Kabaddi League has at least one player who is more than six feet in height. Overall, there are 16 players whose height is more than six feet.
The inaugural season of the Pro Kabaddi League came to an end with the Jaipur Pink Panthers lifting the trophy. The final round was played at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium, Mumbai where Jaipur Pink Panthers beat U Mumba by 35-24, thereby notching the top position with 54 points and winning the title
Star India which was the official broadcaster of Pro Kabaddi League- an initiative of Mashal Sports had bought 74% stake in the sports firm. The value of the deal was not known as of yet. Star India CEO Uday Shankar said that their vision was to create a more favourable ecosystem for the great Indian sport of kabaddi and build on its successful launch.
In the international draft of the second season of Pro Kabaddi League, Hadi Oshtorak from Iran was bid by Telugu Titans for Rs 21.1 lakh. His compatriot, Meraj Sheykh was bid for Rs 20.1 lakh by the same team. International Kabaddi Federation had put out a list of 27 international players in the player's draft pool for season 2.
The organisers of Pro-Kabaddi Season 2 which kicked off on 18 July are aiming to make this season bigger and better in terms of quality of matches, broadcast and reach of the league. The squad strength of teams had also been increased to cope with injuries. Nitin Kukreja, Head of Star Sports said that graphics and analytics will also be better this time around.
