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The FIFA World Cup frenzy may have abated but the organisers of Pro Kabaddi League, the country's first professional league dedicated to the sport, would be hoping that it will be replaced by kabaddi fever. The league is the brainchild of veteran sports commentator Charu Sharma and Mahindra & Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra, and the auctions saw big names from India Inc like Kishore Biyani picking up teams. The glamour was provided by Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha, also team owners. Sharma speaks to Indulekha Aravind about the league's launch and his expectations from the first season. Edited excerpts:
What made you zero in on kabaddi? Was this your idea or Anand Mahindra's?
Well, kabaddi is our indigenous sport, and there are references to it even in mythology. I reconnected with the game in 2006 when I was in the commentary team for it during the Asian Games. I knew then that I had to do something to take our own sport forward and set it on the pedestal it deserved, but it took a long time. I talked to Anand (Mahindra) and told him it was a great game to take forward and restore respect to. I went back to the Asian Games in 2010 for commentary where I again saw the power of the sport, I again talked to producers and said 'let's do something more with the sport, it's fantastic'. In the meantime, the leagues had started in India and a senior executive of the United States' National Basketball Association also told Anand about how fantastic the sport seemed to be. So in 2011, we decided we must go forward. We had to take the game professional and leagues help you do that.
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When you have to do something, you honestly have to work really hard at it. We have spent at least three-and-a-half years running around trying to make this happen. One of the most important things was getting television first because any sport is only as good as its live TV coverage and to have the backing of Star Sports has been a big boon. Once we had TV, things became a little more secure. The second thing was to get team owners who not only brought in a little bit of money, but also - more importantly - brought their Indian entrepreneurial respect and recognition to the game. We had thousands of problems, but the game itself is fantastic, so it will overwhelm any problem that we have.
What kind of viewership are you expecting in the first season?
We don't know because this is the first time ever. We're not setting a goal, but we know the power of the game. We also know it shouldn't be comparative because that's when people start feeling negative. What's important here is that we will find our place under the sun. Can we anticipate how many people will watch it on Day 1, or 29 or season 4? No. But does the sport have the potential? Yes.
What has the response of sponsors been?
I wasn't really expecting too much because I knew that we would initially have to get through many walls of prejudice. We are not pushing on sponsorships in the first year because we want sponsors to see and understand the league first. It would mean some sacrifice in the first year but we also don't want to lower the brand value by accepting whatever is coming our way. We would be getting more sponsors in the second year and in 3-4 years, we should be in as comfortable a position as we can be because it's a really powerful sport. Companies will understand this is a unique vehicle to promote their brand or product.
How similar is it in format to IPL?
We are pretty similar in that there are eight teams and we will be travelling around the country and everybody plays everybody else. But we are not trying to challenge IPL.
The World Kabaddi League was also launched recently. Would you consider it competition?
Well, it's a completely different kind of kabaddi. That's circle kabaddi, which the Punjabis play around the world, while what we are promoting is international kabaddi. It doesn't fall under the governance of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India or other bodies yet. But good for them. I would only hope there are some levels of governance there, so that the sport of kabaddi doesn't get a bad name. I would only hope there are some levels of governance there, so that the sport of kabaddi doesn't get a bad name.
