The Pro Kabaddi League’s organisers, Mashal Sports, announced today on 2nd March that they are considering the creation of an annual women’s professional competition along the same lines as the boys’ PKL, which is now in its tenth year. The Women’s Kabaddi League is a common name for the league.

Although the organisers did not specify the number of teams they intended to field in the inaugural season, they have previously attempted to stage a three-team test event known as the Women’s Kabaddi Challenge in 2016. The names of the three groups were Firebirds, IceDivas, and StormQueens.

“Based on the success we have observed in the men’s league and our dedication to developing kabaddi as a contemporary, top-tier sport from India, our plans for a professional women’s kabaddi league. The Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) and the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), among other stakeholders, will be working with us to develop the women’s league”, according to Anupam Goswami, CEO of Mashal Sports & League Commissioner, Pro Kabaddi League.

“Women’s kabaddi players in India have been fighting for their own professional league ever since the Pro Kabaddi League’s 2014 debut. Today, a women’s version of the Premier Kabaddi League (PKL) will be a huge dream realised for every female kabaddi player in India as well as for female players from other nations”, according to V Tejeswini Bai, who led the successful StormQueens crew in the Women’s Kabaddi Challenge in 2016. Tejeswini is one of numerous Indian women’s kabaddi players who have received an Arjuna Award. As the Indian women’s crew won the Asian Games gold medal for the final time in 2014 in Incheon, she served as its captain.

The top raider in Pro Kabaddi, Pardeep Narwal, remarked, “The quality and appeal of Pro Kabaddi League has allowed us to gain pride and respect as kabaddi players. I am confident that a women’s PKL will ensure our female athletes receive the same recognition and rewards”.