It was Maharashtra’s Mahesh Shinde, who became the first player to be picked in the historic players draft. The 27-year-old defender was drafted by KLO Sports-owned Chennai Quick Guns.
Pune: The game of Kho Kho is set to enter a new era as a total of India’s 143 best players were hand-picked by six franchises on Thursday for the inaugural edition of the Ultimate Kho Kho in Pune.
India’s first-ever franchise-based Kho-Kho league, promoted by Chairman of Dabur India, Amit Burman in collaboration with the Kho Kho Federation of India, will be played from 14 August to 4 September at the Balewadi Stadium here.
A total of 240 registered players, from 28 states and union territories were part of the draft process. They were divided into four categories, A, B, C and D, according to their performances in international matches, the recent National Championships and evaluation conducted by the league.
The 77-top players from Category A, offered Rs 5 lakh and the South Asian Games gold medallist Pratik Waikar, Andhra Pradesh’s Pothireddy Sivareddy, Tamil Nadu’s M Vignesh and Karantaka’s Gowtham MK were among the 20 players who were handpicked by the franchises.
While Waikar and defender Gowtham were picked by Telugu Yoddhas and Odisha Juggernauts respectively as their first pick, Chennai Quick Guns added local boy Vignesh to their squad. The 26-year-old all-rounder and one of the best pole divers in the country, Sivareddy will represent the Gujarat side.
A viewer-friendly revamped format is expected to bring about a transformation in how this indigenous sport is perceived in the country.
It was Maharashtra’s Mahesh Shinde, who became the first player to be picked in the historic players draft. The 27-year-old defender was drafted by KLO Sports-owned Chennai Quick Guns.
Chennai Quick Guns, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Khiladis, Odisha Juggernauts, Rajasthan Warriors, Telugu Yoddhas did their best to pick strong squads as they will fight for the title in the Season 1.
A total of 34 matches will be played over the period of 21 days in the first season of the league. The knockout matches will be played in an exciting playoff format which will consist of a qualifier and eliminator matches.
“Ultimate Kho kho is a very good opportunity for our Odisha Kho-Kho team. We have been doing very well in junior levels and as the Odisha government has owned a franchise now it’s an opportunity for us to contribute towards the growth of this game. I think our team is better than all other teams because we have chosen very good players and mostly we got around 80% of our listed players,” said Lilan Prasad Sahu, OSD, Dept of Sports and Youth Affairs, Govt of Odisha.
“We are excited to contribute to this game-changing experience through our franchise at UKK League. UKK will bring forth our indigenous sport in a new avatar, and we look forward to being a part of yet another journey of mud to mat. The right team selection is integral to the success of a franchise and a lot depends upon the sequence of the draft. But thanks to our coaches to have aptly strategized and selected the desired talent from a pool of 240 players,” said Satyam Trivedi, Adani Sportsline which owns Gujarat Giants.
With Sony Sports Network being the official broadcaster of the Ultimate Kho Kho Season 1, the exciting live action will be telecasted live in Hindi (SonyTEN 3), English (SonyTEN 1), Tamil and Telugu (SonyTEN 4) as well as on their OTT platform, SonyLIV. Two matches will be played during the league stage with the first match starting at 7:00 pm (IST).
Squad details
Chennai Quick Guns: Mahesh Shinde, Rajvardhan Patil, M Vignesh, Ramji Kashyap, Patta Narsaya, S Santhru, Sibin M, Amit Patil, Manoj Patil, Daasari Rao, V Kabilan, Madan, P Jai Prasath, P Anand Kumar, buchannagari Raju, Vijay Vegad, Sachin Gaur, Pritam Chougule, Balvir Singh, Katla Mohan, Venigopal S, Neelakantam Suresh, Jaswant Singh, Vignesh M
Telugu Yoddhas: Pratik Waikar, Rohan Shingade, Sudarshan, Arun S A, Arun Gunki, Deepak Madhav, Avdhut Patil, Prajwal KH, Prajval KH, Adarsh Mohite, Prasad Radye, Subramani Y, Anukul Sarkar, Gavara Venkatesh, Sadanand Meitei, P Hemachandran, Dhruv, Chanish C, Aditya Das, Rokeson Singh, Pitu Reddy and Bojjam Ranjith
Gujarat Giants: Ranjan Shetty, Pothreddy Shivareddy, Mareppa, Suyash Gargate, Sagar Potdar, T Jagannath Das, Rutishbhai Barde, Abhinandan Patil, Akshay Bhangare, Sagar Lengare, Monoj Sarkar, Dhiraj Bhave, S Kavin Raj, Vinayak Pokarde, Govind Bhat, Chinmoy Nandi, Shubham Jambhale, S Sarathkumar, Ajaykumar Mandra, Aniket Pote, Nilesh patil, Saleem Khan, Debendra Nath and Praful Bhange
Odisha Juggernauts : Gowtham MK, Dilip Khandavi, Vishal, Jagannatha Murmu, Aditya Kudale, Nilesh Jadhav, Suraj Lande, Dipesh More, Subhasis Santra, Mahesha P, Avinash Desai, Lipun Mukhi, Dinesh Naik S, Arjun Singh, Suresh Kumar, T Vinod Kumar, Shiv Kumar Sen, Milind Chavrekar, Manoj Ghotekar, Darshanapu Sathish, Gurjinder Singh, Swayam Satyaprakash and Mukesh Prajapat
Rajasthan Warriors: Abhijit Patil, Dilrajsingh Sengar, Sushant Hajare, Akshay Ganpule, Hrushikesh Murchavade, Sourabh Adavkar, Suresh Sawant, Majahar Jamadar, Mohammad Taseen, Shailesh Sankapal, Govind Yadav, SK Murtha Ali, Bharat Pradhan, Nikhil B, Yalla Satish, Jithin B, K Dhananjay Singh, Atla Reddy, Tapan Pal, Mahesh M, Biswajit Das, Ashwani Ranjan, Mukesh Maurya and Bhuvneshwar Sahu
Mumbai Khiladis: Milind Kurpe, Rohan Kore, Visag S, Shreejesh S, Vijay Hazare, Faizalkhan Pathan, Abhishek Pathrode, Gajanan Shengal, Durvesh Salunke, Rajesh Kumar, Rohit Verma, Avik Singha, Sribin KP, Saurav Kandpal, Abhishek MS, Bichu SS, Rajat Malik, Rahul Sawant, Harish Mohammad, Devendra Dagur, Gaurav, Srijin J and Ummer Rather
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