Super Kabaddi League (SKL) is a professional-level

kabaddi Kabaddi (, ) is a contact team sport played between two teams of seven players. It is one of the traditional games of South Asia. In this game, a raider enters the opposing half of the court to touch defenders and attempt to return within 30 ...

league in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Its inaugural season was played from May 1 to 10, 2018 in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

. This league follows a city-based franchise model. More than a 100 Kabaddi players from Pakistan and abroad were presented in the players' draft, which took place on 23 April 2018 in Lahore. International players from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

participated in the inaugural edition.

Draft

Drafting of the inaugural season took place on 23 April 2018, with each of the ten franchises given an opportunity to pick a roster of 10 players, which included 2 Platinum, 7 Gold and 1 Foreign player pick.

Opening ceremony

The formal opening ceremony of the league took place on 1 May 2018 at Alhamra Cultural Complex in

. Film actress-cum-director/producer Reema Khan was the host of the opening ceremony. Singers Nabeel Shaukat Ali and Sara Raza Khan performed during the ceremony. This was the first time that a sports related event of such a scale had been organised in the country. The event was open for all to attend. It was attended by people from all walks of life as well team owners, officials of the Pakistan Kabaddi Federation and many others. The ceremony included several performances, which included Bakhshi Brothers, who also sang one of the songs for Season 1.

Teams and locations

Broadcast

SKL was broadcast live on television. The broadcast partner was

PTV Sports PTV Sports HD is a 24-hour state-owned sports channel operated by the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). PTV Sports was founded as a sports division of the PTV in the 1970s. It was licensed as a stand-alone sports channel in January 2012. ...

. In addition to the live telecast, the matches were shown on repeat the following day as well.

Final

Gujrat Warriors won the inaugural Super Kabaddi League after defeating Faisalabad Sherdils in the final game by 38-26. Gujrat Warriors' Tehseen Ullah was declared the ''Man of the Final''. Faisalabad's captain Nasir Ali was declared the ''Player of the League''. The winning team received a Rs. 1 million cash prize while the runners-up were given Rs. 500,000.

References