Haryana Steelers Owners: All you need to know about them

Following four successful seasons, the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 is all set to add new heroes to the kabaddi landscape. The brainchild of Charu Sharma and industrialist Anand Mahindra, PKL was the first initiative of their company Mashal Sports.

The upcoming season, which is set to kick off on 28th July 2017 will be the biggest of its kind. Marking their geographical expansion, the upcoming edition will feature 12 franchises from 11 states, with four new teams joining the existing eight. The tournament will be staged over 13 weeks and host over 130 matches.

A new addition to the team-roster, the Haryana Steelers are owned by JSW Sports Private Limited. The JSW Group is one of India's largest business conglomerates, headed by Sajjan Jindal. They are also the owners of former I-League champions and recent ISL side Bengaluru FC and are renowned for the contribution towards the development of sports in India.

The Blues won the I-League, India's premier professional club competition, in its debut season and followed that up with the crown in 2016 as well. The current holders of the Federation Cup also became the first side to reach the final of the AFC Cup.

Besides the kabaddi and football teams, JSW also own Bengaluru Yodhas, a wrestling team which reached the semi finals of the inaugural Pro Wrestling League. The franchise is co-owned by Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli. JSW is also currently in talks of owning a team in the Hockey India League (HIL) as well.

According to Firstpost, the steel giants initially turned down an offer to own a team during the induction of the PKL in 2014. CEO of JSW Sports, Mustafa Ghouse revealed that since the company had started with Bengaluru FC just the year before, it would have been difficult to tackle the bandwidth of two separate sports leagues simultaneously.

The Sports Division of the JSW Group known as JSW Sports is bestowed with the responsibility of driving a variety of sports programs. The most popular of them is the Sports Excellence Program (SEP), the flagship endeavour of the company.

The SEP currently supports 39 athletes across six disciplines including Olympians like Vinesh Phogat. The SEP athletes have been achieving consistent success on the international stage and have won a total of 15 medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.

The Haryana Steelers have shaped up a balanced team with the perfect blend of youth and experience. JSW Sports have signed former Indian Kabaddi coach Ranbir Singh Khokkar as the coach and will be hoping to make it big in their debut season.