Pro Kabaddi: 21 players retained by 9 franchises

After five highly successful seasons, the Kabaddi League, India's biggest domestic sporting league, gears up for yet another season of thrilling action, with the announcement of the "Elite Retained Players".

The League today announced the name of the players who would continue their association with their respective franchises for the sixth edition of the Pro Kabaddi League, beginning October 19, 2018.

Ahead of the sixth season of the IPL, a total of 21 players from the fifth season of the league were retained by their respective franchises.

Meraj Sheykh, Pardeep Narwal, Ajay Thakur and Sandeep Narwal are among the elite players who have been retained by the nine franchises.

Anupam Goswami, League Commissioner, Pro Kabaddi said, "The League is strongly in favour of team stability and instituting it at a policy level to enable strong team structures. The player retention framework has been strengthened to encourage continuity and a longer term association between player and franchise, to the benefit of both. Squad talent, formation and development have always been top priority for us. Interventions like "Elite Player Retention" and the "Future Kabaddi Heroes" programme will go a long way towards ensuring that Pro Kabaddi Season VI offers the highest level of talent and competition for India's own sport."

The sixth edition of the league is slated to be held from October 19.

The full list of retained players is as follows:

Bengal Warriors: Surjeet Singh, Maninder Singh

Bengaluru Bulls: Rohit Kumar

Dabang Delhi: Meraj Sheykh

Gujarat Fortunegiants: Sachin, Sunil Kumar, Mahendra Ganesh Rajput

Haryana Steelers: Kuldeep Singh

Jaipur Pink Panthers: No players retained

Patna Pirates: Pardeep Narwal, Jaideep, Jawahar Dagar, Manish Kumar

Puneri Paltan: Sandeep Narwal, Rajsh Mondal, Gurunath More, Girish Ernak

Tamil Thalaivas: Ajay Thakur, C Arun, Amit Hooda

Telugu Titans: Nilesh Salunke, Mohsen Maghsoudloujafari

U Mumba: No players retained.