Monitoring Desk
LAHORE: The inaugural edition of Pakistan Super Kabbadi League (SKL) is just a day away with the opening ceremony taking place today at Lahore’s Alhamra Cultural Complex.
The first ever kabbadi league will feature 10 teams which have been divided into two groups. The 10 city-based teams have been divided into two pools.
Pool A will consist of Gujrat Warriors, Gwadar Bahadars, Lahore Thunders, Sahiwal Bulls and Karachi Zorawars.
Pool B will feature Islamabad All-Stars, Faisalabad Sherdils, Peshawar Haiders and Multan Sikandars and Kashmir Janbaazs.
The league will officially kick off on May 2 and conclude on May 10, and will be held at the sports gymnasium in Lahore.
The draft for the inaugural edition of the SKL took place in Lahore on April 23. Actress Reema Khan will be hosting the event’s opening ceremony along with Khalid Malik while singers Nabeel Shaukat and Sara Raza Khan will be performing at the event.
SKL owner Haider Ali Daud Khan said he is hopeful that the event will be a success because every stakeholder who had invested in the league is taking an interest as if it was their own. The team captains, on the other hand, are confident the spectators will get to see dramatic matches.
The added they were thankful to everyone who had made the event a reality and gave kabbadi a platform in Pakistan. According to the Secretary of Kabbadi Federation, Muhammad Sarwar, a total of 16 international players from seven countries namely Sri Lanka, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Japan, Bangladesh and Kenya and 116 national players will take part in the league.
Revolving around very basic skills, the game is played by two teams of seven, in which a ‘raider’ enters the other half of the court to tag or wrestle opponents before returning ‘home’ while holding his breath and chanting ‘kabaddi, kabaddi’.
In the recently concluded Kabaddi World Cup in Australia, the Pakistan team failed to even enter the semi-finals as Australia went all the way and clinched the title.
