With only a few hours left for the prestigious Kabaddi Premier League (KPL) to take off, the arrangements at the venue are ready and the teams and match officials have taken position on Tuesday. The event, which will be held from June 8 to 16, will begin on Wednesday evening with International Kabaddi Federation president, J S Gehlot, formally inaugurating the event.
The KPL chairman, K P Rao, who is also the chief of K P Rao Corporate Consultants Private Limited, which is organizing the KPL under the auspicious of Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), released the match fixtures at a news conference on Tuesday. The first match would be held between Lanco Lions and Delhi Dashers on Wednesday at 6 pm, followed by Krishna Kings and Hyderabad Horses, Haridwar Hunters and Dr Anand Ongole Bulls, Chennai Cheetas and Rajasthan Raiders.
He said four matches would be conducted every day and the finals would be held on June 16 on knock-out basis. As part of the finals, a special match with women players would be held between the KPL team and AKFI team, he added.
He further said that he wanted to promote Kabaddi in the country on par with other sports and had planned the KPL 2011. The effort would continue in the years to come, he said adding that their objective was to include the sport in the Olympics at least by 2020.
The AKFI general secretary, Jagadeeshwar Yadav, said the Kabaddi is played currently in 32 countries across the world. However, if the sport is to be included in the Olympics, it has to be played in minimum of 50 nations. He said the AKFI was committed to promote the sport in remaining 18 countries so as to include it in the 2020 Olympics. He thanked K P Rao for taking up the cause of Kabaddi and organising KPL.
The teams and captains:
Team Captain
- Delhi Dashers Naveen Kumar
- Lanco Lions Naveen Gautam
- Krishna Kings B C Ramesh
- Haridwar Hunters Rakesh
- Dr Anand Ongole Bulls Dinesh Kumar
- Chennai Cheetas Cherlathan
- Rajasthan Raiders Pankaj Sirsat
- Hyderabad Horses Manpreet Singh
