Mumbai, June 3 (IANS) Following a successful inaugural season, the second edition of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) will begin from July 18, the organisers announced on Wednesday.
The league promoted by Mashal Sports and Star India with the backing of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India and the International Kabaddi Federation, will feature 60 games played across 37 days in eight cities.
The season opener will pit the two finalists of last year as hosts U Mumba take on reigning champions Jaipur Pink Panthers in the opening leg to be held at the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) here.
Following the same ‘caravan style’ format of the first season, the league games will be played at each franchise city for a duration of four days, where the home team will play four of the visiting franchises. All seven visiting franchises will play a set of away games in each city.
After the opening leg in Mumbai, the league will move on to the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata, followed by the home of current champions, Jaipur Pink Panthers at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
The Indoor Stadium at the Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna will be the venue for the culmination of the first half of the PKL season 2.
Hyderabad, the new home of the Telugu Titans, will play host to the second half of the league with the caravan arriving at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on August 4.
Moving on from Hyderabad, the league will be played at the Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium in New Delhi and move onto the Kanteerava Indooor Stadium in Bangalore before culminating at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.
For the final leg, the playoffs will return to NSCI Mumbai, with the semi-finals scheduled for August 21 and the third place play-off and final scheduled for Sunday, August 23.
During the inaugural season, within 12 hours of its commencement, PKL achieved 140 million impressions on Twitter through six million tweets.
The historic finale was watched by one out of every four TV viewers in India and the league was watched by about 435 million viewers on TV, according to TAM data, making Kabaddi one of India’s most followed sports.