Unilazer to give kabaddi a makeover

Ronnie Screwvala-promoted Unilazer Sports is keen to give the ‘game of soil’ - kabaddi, a makeover to make it cool and contemporary like football, cricket or badminton. To start with, the company said it is engaged in talks with brands for developing products such as footwear, mats or even technologies to promote the low-key indigenous sport.

Pro-Kabaddi is an eight-city league backed by the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) & the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) supervised by Mashal Sports. Besides Unilazer, the other franchisees include Abhishek Bachchan (Jaipur), Uday Kotak (Pune) and Kishore Biyani (Kolkata), Mukand Steel (Patna), Core Green Group (Vizag), Cosmic Group (Bangalore), Yes Bank (Delhi).

Supratik Sen, CEO (Sports), Unilazer Ventures told Business Line , “There are nearly 500 clubs playing kabaddi in western region alone. We believe once we add some glamour and glitz, the sports will get its due attention. We are seeing strong economic prospects for the game.” Played with seven players on each side, the core idea of the game is to score points by raiding into the opponent's court and touching as many defense players as possible without getting caught.

Unilazer’s team U Mumbai is among one of the eight teams that will be participating in a pro-kabaddi league. Star Sports will broadcast matches live from July 26. Sen said Unilazer is also starting an initiative called Future Stars.

The parallel program will incubate 12 local players identified through a talent hunt across Mumbai in the age group of 18-22 years. In May this year, India held the first ever kabaddi auctions. The auction saw participation from various states besides participants from Iran, S Korea, Nepal and Pakistan. Sen said the players were bid by eight teams for an amount ranging from ₹4 to 9 lakh. Other sports which have followed cricket’s league footsteps include badminton, hockey and volleyball.

Sen said this was one of the key aspects of the game as the entire entourage of the league will travel from one participating city to another, playing seven matches at a venue. Each team will play four games at its home ground.

COMMENT NOW