Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar recently made an entrepreneurial foray into the Premier Badminton League (PBL), by acquiring a stake in the Bengaluru Bulls franchise yesterday. A consortium, which include celebrated film stars such as Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna and Allu Arvind bought a 'substantial stake', within the franchise hierarchy, highlighting their interest to invest in the growth of badminton in India.
However, sources close to Sportskeeda have revealed that, the same high-profile consortium is actively looking to purchase majority stakes in a Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) franchise. If this is the case, Sachin will be the first cricketer to make the Kabaddi jump. Our source said, “Let's be honest here, PBL cannot be a for-profit venture honestly, the league doesn't get as many numbers and the tenure of the tournament is also very short. So, this particular venture is more about capitalising on the new found popularity of badminton and grow it as much as possible. However, there other avenues such as Kabaddi that the consortium is looking at.”
The Pro Kabaddi League showed a 51 % growth in its fourth season, making India's second most watched league, after the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Kabaddi World Cup ushered in 114 million viewers across the world, again putting it second on the tally behind the Cricket World Cup. Our source added, “Most PKL franchises right now are not willing to sell considering the amount of profit they are making. But, the demonetisation process has opened several avenues for the consortium. Again, they are looking at sport as a whole, and not solely Kabaddi, plans are still sketchy about how as they only joined hands a month back. There could be some foreign acquisitions as well. Nothing I can tell you right now though.”
The winter session of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) was cancelled, with reports suggesting a long summer session in 2017. On being asked whether Sachin's connection with Mumbai might influence the franchise selection, our source added, “Those are details I cannot talk about now, but certain franchises have showed interest, but nothing is very concrete yet. As I mentioned, talks are at a very premature stage, interest in kabaddi is natural considering how big it is in tier 2 and tier 3 towns. Let’s see how it goes.”
Sachin’s new PBL franchise, Bengaluru Bulls are scheduled to begin their campaign on January 1.
