Nine of India’s 12 Asian Games kabaddi players came out of a Haryana league, and it just added two teams

The Kabaddi Champions League finished its first season on 7 February. Eight teams, all of them from Haryana, twelve days of round-robin matches and a final that Rohtak Royals won 32-30 against Bhiwani Bulls. Seven months later the league says nine of the 12 men India take to the Asian Games came through it.

On Monday the KCL announced a second season with two new franchises, Jind Jaguars and Kurukshetra Knights, taking it to 10 teams. The timing is not an accident. India’s kabaddi campaign in Japan starts on 21 September, and the league would very much like you to know where those players learned the job.

The seven the league named

Sunil Malik of Karnal Kings, Ayan Lauchab of Sonipat Stars, Devank Dalal of Bhiwani Bulls, Ashu Malik of Hisar Heroes, Rahul Setpal of Gurugram Gurus, Jaideep Dahiya of Faridabad Fighters and Ankit Jaglan of Panipat Panthers. Seven of the eight season-one franchises produced an India player, and the league puts the full count at nine.

India’s 12 for the Asian Games also carries Pawan Sehrawat and Arjun Deshwal, two of the biggest names the Pro Kabaddi League has, plus Aslam Inamdar, Sunil Kumar, Sumit Sangwan and Gaurav Khatri.

Rambir Singh Khokhar, the Dronacharya awardee who has coached India to Asian Championship gold in two different decades, put it more directly than the press release did.

“Look, at the national camp that was held for the Asian Games, most boys were from KCL, and now nine boys are going into the Asian Games,” he said. “And they’re all top-level. Whether it’s the defenders or the offence, it’s the best platform.”

A one-state league with a national pipeline

Every KCL franchise is a Haryana city. Rohtak, Bhiwani, Hisar, Sonipat, Karnal, Gurugram, Faridabad, Panipat, and now Jind and Kurukshetra. That is the point rather than a limitation. Haryana has supplied Indian kabaddi teams for decades, and a league that plays entirely inside the state is the shortest possible route from a village mat to a national camp.

KCL chairman Balwan Singh made the expansion case in those terms. “With more franchises coming into the league, we are creating more opportunities for players to compete at a high level and showcase their ability,” he said, adding that “the biggest validation of our ecosystem is the players who have progressed through it”.

Khokhar went further about what two extra teams do to the competition. “When even just one team is added, its charm and the competition go up,” he said. “Now that two more teams have joined, I feel like this time, neither the fans nor the players will be able to even imagine it.”

Japan first

Kabaddi at the Asian Games runs from 21 to 26 September at the Tokai Citizens Gymnasium in Aichi, with preliminaries through the 24th, semi-finals on the 25th and both finals on the 26th. Ten men’s teams and eight women’s teams are entered. India are defending champions in both.

India’s men are in Group A with Japan, South Korea, Bangladesh and Chinese Taipei. Iran are in Group B, which means the two cannot meet before the semi-finals. That draw matters more than it looks. Iran beat India 27-18 in the semi-final at Jakarta in 2018 and went on to take the gold, the one time in nine editions that India have not won it, and India had to beat them in the final at Hangzhou in 2023 to get it back.

Season two of the KCL has no dates yet. What it has is ten teams and a recruiting pitch that writes itself if the nine come home with medals.

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