Pro Kabaddi team Bengal Warriors CEO compares team to IPL side Deccan Chargers

Bengal Warriors finished seventh in the first season of the PKL

Kolkata, July 1 (IANS)

Bengal Warriors on Wednesday unveiled the revamped team for the second season of the Pro-Kabaddi League (PKL) which was a huge success in its inaugural year.

Warriors coach Raj Narain Sharma said, “We have had problems last year with our defence. We have brought in a few new players and have trained the existing players accordingly. So we are confident and we promise better results this season.”

Warriors have also changed their captain for the upcoming season starting on July 18, replacing Nilesh Shinde with former India captain and Arjuna Awardee Dinesh Kumar.

“We are really focussed this time around and I am quite sure we will win the trophy this year,” Dinesh told reporters at a city hotel here.

Warriors CEO Sandip Tarkas too echoed the same sentiments as Dinesh and is hopeful that the franchise which finished seventh last season can win the league this time.

“It happened with Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League (IPL). They were last in the inaugural edition, then they came back to win it the next year (2009), hopefully we will do it too,” Tarkas said.

Warriors will start their campaign at home on July 22 when they face defending champions Jaipur Pink Panthers in the Netaji Indoor stadium.

Warriors' four international players – South Korea's Seong Ryeol Kim and Jang Kun Lee, Chaminda Samarakoon of Sri Lanka and Mohammed Tariq of Pakistan – are scheduled to arrive by July 3.