Mumbai : The Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) in association with Mashal Sports announced the launch of The Women’s Kabaddi Challenge on 28th June. Star India, the official broadcaster of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), is a majority shareholder in Mashal Sports, the promoter of PKL.
Having popularised and monetised the game on television, the network now aims to get things going for the women’s Kabbadi. While it isn’t yet an annual tournament, it will use the PKL platform as a launch pad.
There will be three teams — Fire Birds captained by Mamtha Poojari, Ice Divas captained by Abhilasha Mhatre, and Storm Queens captained by Tejeswini Bai. The first match will be played on June 28 at the Dome in the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stadium in Mumbai, with the finals set to be hosted alongside the men’s Pro Kabaddi Finals on 31st July at Hyderabad. The women will be competing on the same sized mats as the men, but will have 30-minute matches, with two halves, instead of the 40-minute format for men.
Much like the first season of PKL, the ad-sales team has not looked at monetising the women’s challenge. The matches take place on days when PKL has only one match scheduled, leaving the stadium and airtime free.
All the women’s matches will be telecast at 9 pm, and the commercial partners for PKL, will get visibility in these matches too.
The marketing campaign was released on Sunday night, and goes with the tagline — Cross the Line. This is to highlight Star’s efforts to bring women’s kabaddi into the spotlight.
Janardan Singh Gehlot, president, International Kabaddi Federation, said, “With Star Sports Pro Kabaddi carving a niche in the sports arena, we felt the need to create the same opportunity for our talented women kabaddi players. We have handpicked best of the players across regions to form these three teams. This will bring tremendous benefits not only to women’s kabaddi but to women’s sports in India.”
Anupam Goswami, league commissioner, PKL, added, “Women’s Kabaddi Challenge is a manifestation of the journey that women have undertaken in all walks of our national life. We applaud the fact that women regularly challenge gender stereotypes in our society. Come June 28, this is where Women will #Crosstheline in kabaddi.”
The matches will be played in Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Jaipur and Pune. It will televised live on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports HD 2 in English, Star Sports 3 and Star Sports HD 3 in Hindi, Maa Movies in Telugu; on Star Gold in Hindi and Suvarna Plus in Kannada and on Star’s Digital platform.
