Pro Kabaddi league's rising fortunes rub off on prospects of the rural game

As season 9 begins today, a look at the money and modernisation coming into the sport

In the summer of 2014, Deepak Hooda was called up to the Indian kabaddi team national camp in Bengaluru for the Asian Games for the first time in his life. He’d been there a few weeks when one Saturday, while he was running laps on track, his phone started ringing incessantly. It was May 20, the day of the first Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) auction. Several of his teammates and coaches were watching the stream on their phones.

Hooda kept his laps going till it was time for a break. His phone hadn’t stopped ringing all of this time. When