Indian female wrestlers in Greek mythological dress with British-Indian singer Apache Indian before walking the ramp at the launch.
From Norris Pritam*
New Delhi, 28 July: The maiden international professional competition in Olympic style wrestling is all set to make a dent in global sport. The launch of Pro Wrestling League (PWL) in New Delhi on Monday has set the ball rolling for the unique event being held across six Indian cities between November 8 and 29.
PWL is a brainchild of Ashish Chahdha and Kartikey Sharma who have joined hands to float a new company, Pro-Sportify to organise the US$ 5 million mega event. Sharma is managing director of iTV Network while Ashish Chadha is CEO of sports rights management company Sporty Solutionz.
“`This is a historic day for Indian sport,’’ said Sushil Kumar, double Olympic medallist in wrestling at the launch.
“Pro Wrestling League is going to be very good for the Indian wrestlers as we would get a lot of exposure while competing and playing alongside top grapplers of the world. We always talk about getting exposure and through this event we would get it sitting in our own country,” said Sushil. The League, some months before the Rio Olympic Games would prove a much-needed platform to both Indian and international wrestlers.
For Geeta Phogat, the lone Indian woman Olympian wrestler, “League would give necessary boost to women’s wrestling in the country.’’
“Around 20 top international wrestlers including Olympic medallists and world champions have already signed up for the league,’’ said Ashish Chadha at the launch. “A better picture would emerge after September 1 deadline to take on board all wrestlers before the auction take place on September 15,” he added.
Kartikey Sharma said “Pro-Sportify was an earnest effort to bridge the gap in Indian sport and catalyse talent to sporting history.’’
At the glittering launch, Sushil walked the ramp with other top stars of Indian wrestling that included Bajrang, Anuj Chowdhry, Geeta Phogat, Babita and Geetika Jakhar. Well-known rapper Apache Indian launched the theme song of the league, Hamara Khel, as the grapplers, flanked by models, walked the ramp. Apache Indian had specially flown in from Birmingham to perform during the launch of the League.
In the League there would be six city-based teams with the world’s top 66 wrestlers. Each team will consist of 11 players — six male and five female. Per team will have six Indians and five foreigners.
Out of five foreign players, four can be part of a tie.
The league will be played on the best of nine format but all the bouts would be contested during the league phase. Each bout will have three rounds of three minutes each, separated by a one-minute break.
Every team will play others at least once over the 21-day event, in which 15 league games, two semifinals and the final will take place.
The base price for each team is set at Rs 3 crore and the six franchises would be finalised by September 7, while the host broadcaster would be decided by August 30.
A unique feature of launch in New Delhi was the participation of six girls from the Delhi College of Art at the launch. The hearing-challenged girls have created the logo of the league. “We were looking for a professional agency to create the logo but when we found these girls we immediately assigned the task to these girls as part of our commitment to society,’’ said Ashish Chadha. “And Kartikey and I are absolutely delighted with our decision,’’ he added.
* Norris Pritam is a New Delhi based senior sports journalist.
– SAT News Service.
