Abhishek Bacchan buys Jaipur Kabaddi team

Movie actor Abhishek Bacchan today became the latest celebrity who bought a Kabaddi team as the sport entered the league of cricket and hockey-like franchises. Bacchan will be supporting the Jaipur team.

Bacchan who claims to have been a sportsman himself said that he is very happy to be associated with the game. “The sport of Kabaddi is already immensely popular, through the league I hope we can take this great sport to a whole new horizon,” he said.

Apart from Abhishek, a number of celebrities have already bought teams. One of them is Ronnie Screwvala, the head of Unilazer group. Kishore Biyani, the chairman of Future group is a franchise owner as well.

The pro-Kabaddi league is organised by Mashal Sports which is promoted by Anand Mahindra, the chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra, as well as Piyush Pandey, the executive chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, as well as the head of Luthra law firm, Rajiv Luthra, amongst others.  

The matches which will involve eight teams will be showcased on Star Sports, is organised in association with International Kabaddi Federation, Asian  Kabaddi Federation of India.

A player auction will precede the matches which are expected to kick off by the end of the year. As many as hundred players will be auctioned, but only 72 will be from India. The game will see participation from players across countries.

There will be players from neighbouring countries like Afghanistan, Nepal,  Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It will also see player participation from England, Canada, Italy, Japan, South Korea, USA and Zimbabwe.