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August 9 will see the launch of yet another international sports league from India. Mentored by Sukhbir Singh Badal, deputy chief minister of Punjab, and Pargat Singh, sports administrator and a former hockey Olympian, the World Kabaddi League (WKL) will see participation by 10 teams from India, Canada, the US, the UK and Pakistan.
WKL has announced two of the 10 team owners - rapper and musician Yo Yo Honey Singh and Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar. The tournament will span over 18 weekends, starting in England and ending in India. During the course of the tournament, the teams will travel from England to Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Canada and India.
For the first year, the franchise fee for the team owners has been fixed at Rs 1 crore. This is marginally less than the Rs 1.5 crore forked out by the franchise owners in the Anand Mahindra- and Charu Sharma-promoted Pro Kabaddi League. The player fee cap on teams, however, is significantly higher in the case of WKL at Rs 1.5 crore as opposed to Rs 60 lakh in case of Pro Kabaddi League. In case of WKL, the teams also have a spending limit of Rs 2.5 crore on marketing and promotions, making the total spending cap on each team at Rs 5 crore for the first season.
The total prize money in the WKL is Rs 3.5 crore with Rs 1.7 crore going to the first-place holder, Rs 80 lakh to the second-place holder and the rest would be equally split between third- and fourth-place holders.
The total prize money in the Pro Kabaddi League is Rs 1 crore.
"We want the sport to be developed and popularised not only in India, but also in countries where the diaspora audience can access it. Hence, the travelling format is very similar to the Formula 1 racing format. We also want the franchise owners to get returns on their investment as soon as possible. We estimate a couple of years for every franchise to break even," says Raman Raheja, CEO, WKL.
He adds the League already has a leading real estate company as the title sponsor on board, but refuses to give out the name citing confidentiality clause restrictions.
Apart from Singh and Kumar, there is also a female actor from India who has agreed to co-own the franchise from the UK. The announcement of the other owners will be made in the second half of July, says Raheja. The League will be hosted by the participating franchises at the different venues. The inaugural weekend in London will be hosted by Kumar and the weekend in Canada by Singh. Once the tournament lands in India, the franchises will co-host the matches. Multi Screen Media has the broadcast rights of the tournament and it will be telecast on the network's sports channel Sony Six, which is currently airing the FIFA World Cup. Prasana Krishnan, senior executive vice-president and business head at Sony Six, says: "The League fits into our motto of providing variety sports to the viewers. Also, while there are a lot of quality international sports properties on Indian television right now, indigenous sports are under-represented. There is a lot of interest in the sport among the diaspora in the UK and Canada, especially the Punjabi community settled abroad." The team at MSM is busy pitching the League to its advertisers and sponsor names can be expected in a week's time. India has seen the emergence of many sports leagues in the past three years including Indian Premier League, Indian Badminton League and the Hero Hockey India League, which have completed one and two seasons, respectively. Soon to kick-start the first season will be the Indian Super League (football) and the International Premier Tennis League in the second half of the year.
