Pawan Kumar Sehrawat became the costliest player in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) while Iran’s Fazel Atrachali retained his record for the most expensive defender in the Season 10 Player Auction 

The two-day players’ auction was held on October 9 and 10 in Mumbai. 

India’s Pawan Sehrawat smashed his own record after he was bought by Telugu Titans for INR 2.605 crore on Monday. The star raider had become the costliest buy when he was acquired by Tamil Thalaivas for INR 2.26 crore ahead of Season 9, however, his move to the Titans saw him better his own record.

Meanwhile, Fazel Atrachali continued to be the most sought-after defender after the Iranian was bought by Gujarat Giants for INR 1.60 crore. Fazel Atrachali, who made his PKL debut in Season 2, was previously bought by Puneri Paltan for INR 1.38 crore in the Season 9 PKL Auction. 

Another Iranian kabaddi player, Mohammadreza Chiyaneh became the most expensive foreigner at the PKL Auction after he went to Puneri Paltan for INR 2.35 crore. Maninder Singh returned to Bengal Warriors for INR 2.12 crore. 

Meanwhile, Siddharth Desai, who had previously represented U Mumba and Telugu Titans in the last editions of PKL, was bought by Haryana Steelers for INR 1 crore.

A total of 118 players were sold to the 12 franchises during the Player Auction.

Here’s a look at Pro Kabaddi’s most expensive players after the Season 10 PKL Player Auction.

Most expensive players at Pro Kabaddi Season 10 Auction

Pawan Kumar Sehrawat to Telugu Titans - INR 2.605 crore

India’s star raider Pawan Sehrawat once again took the crown of being the most expensive player in PKL history after receiving the highest bid in the Season 10 Auction. 

Pawan Sherawat, who first featured in the third season of Pro Kabaddi League, has played a total of 105 matches since his debut for Bengaluru Bulls. 

Overall, he has earned 1037 points - 987 of which are raid points. Nicknamed the Hi-Flyer, Pawan Sherawat has a successful raid percentage of 52. Pawan Sherawat played a crucial role in Bengaluru Bulls’ title win in the sixth season where he was also crowned the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) having notched up 282 points over the course of the campaign.

Mohammadreza Chiyaneh to Puneri Paltan - INR 2.35 crore

Mohammadreza Chiyaneh of Iran saw his stocks rise exponentially ahead of the PKL Season 10 and became the second-most expensive player in the recently concluded auction. The all-rounder has made a total of 286 tackles with a success rate of 56 per cent. 

He holds the record for the most tackle points in a single PKL match and will be seen donning Puneri Paltan colours in the upcoming season. Overall, the former Patna Pirates player Mohammadreza Ciyaneh has earned a total of 183 points in his PKL career so far.

Maninder Singh to Bengal Warriors - INR 2.12 crore    

The ever-consistent Maninder Singh’s raiding and leadership abilities were a few of the key aspects that convinced Bengal Warriors to retain the Indian player’s services at the PKL Season 10 Player Auction. 

Second in the all-time leaderboard for raid points with 1231 raid points to his name, Maninder won the PKL crown in the inaugural edition of the league with Jaipur Pink Panthers in 2014 and followed it up with another title triumph with the Warriors in Season 7. 

Fazel Atrachali to Gujarat Giants - INR 1.60 crore

Fazel Atrachali is one of the top defenders in PKL. The Iranian kabaddi player broke his own record of being one of the highest-paid defenders in the league when Gujarat Giants shelled out INR 1.60 crore in the Season 10 auction. 

The defender who plays in the left corner has amassed 424 tackle points, making him the best-tackling defender in league history. Fazel Atrachali was named the league’s Best Defender in Season 4 and Season 7 and has also won the PKL title with Patna Pirates in the past.   

Siddharth Desai to Haryana Steelers - INR 1 crore

Siddharth Desai was bought by Haryana Steelers for INR 1 crore at the Season 10 Player Auction. It was the second time the raider made it to the crore club. Earlier, Siddharth Desai was bought by Telugu Titans for INR 1.45 crore ahead of Season 7. 

The kabaddi player from Maharashtra, who made his debut for U Mumba in the PKL Season 6, has earned a total of 620 points - out of which 611 are raid points. He has a successful raid percentage of 52 and will be Haryana Steelers’ lead raider in Season 10 of PKL.

Photo credit: Alamy

After two intense days of bidding at the Pro Kabaddi Season 10 Player Auction, all 12 franchises have now completed their squads and look set for another blockbuster PKL season, starting on December 2, 2023.

The two-day-long auction witnessed players from Category A and B with a base price of INR 30 and INR 20 lakh respectively go under the hammer on Day 1.

Day 2 of the player auction saw players from Category C and D with a base price of INR 13 lakh and INR 9 lakh respectively being up for grabs.

Like in the Season 9 Player Auction, Pawan Sehrawat was once again the most expensive player after Telugu Titans secured his services with a bid worth a whopping INR 2.605 crore.

Meanwhile, Mohammadreza Chiyaneh became the most expensive foreign player in PKL history after Puneri Paltan roped him in for INR 2.35 crore.

Maninder Singh was the other player to cross the two-crore mark in the PKL 10 Player Auction after Bengal Warriors used their Final Bid Match (FBM) card to re-sign the star raider for INR 2.12 crore.

Two more players hit the crore mark at the auction. While raider Siddharth Desai was snapped up by Haryana Steelers for INR 1 crore, Iranian defender Fazel Atrachali was bought by Gujarat Giants for INR 1.60 crore.

With that mind, let’s have a look at Pro Kabaddi all teams full squads 2023 with Season 10 of PKL fast approaching.

Pro Kabaddi all teams full squad 2023

Bengal Warriors

Retained players:

Vaibhav Bhausaheb Garje

R Guhan

Suyon Baban Gaikar

Parshant Kumar

Players bought at auction:

Maninder Singh

Nitin Rawal

Shubham Shinde

Shrikant Jadhav

Chai-Ming Chang

Aslam Thambi

Bhoir Akshay Bharat

Akshay Kumar

Akshay Bodake

Nitin Kumar

Vishwas S

 

Bengaluru Bulls 

Retained Players:

Neeraj Narwal

Bharat

Saurabh Nandal

Yash Hooda

Players bought at auction:

Vishal

Vikash Khandola

Ran Singh

Md. Liton Ali

Piotr Pamulak

Ponparthiban Subramanian

Sunder

Surjeet Singh

Abhishek Singh

Banty

Monu

Ankit

Sushil

Rakshit

Rohit Kumar

 

Dabang Delhi K.C. 

Retained Players:

Naveen Kumar

Vijay

Manjeet

Ashish Narwal

Suraj Panwar

Players bought at auction:

Vishal Bhardwaj

Sunil

Ashu Malik

Meetu

Nitin Chandel

Balasaheb Shahaji Jadhav

Akash Prasher

Vikrant

Felix Li

Yuvraj Pandeya

Mohit

 

Gujarat Giants

Retained Players:

Manuj

Sonu

Rakesh

Rohan Singh

Parteek Dahiya

Players bought at auction:

Fazel Atrachali

Rohit Gulia

Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh

Arkam Shaikh

Sombir

Vikas Jaglan

Sourav Gulia

Deepak Rajender Singh

Ravi Kumar

More GB

Jitendar Yadav

Nitesh

Jagdeep

Balaji D

 

Haryana Steelers

Retained Players:

K Prapanjan

Vinay

Jaideep

Mohit

Naveen

Monu

Harsh

Sunny

Players bought at auction:

Siddharth Desai

Chandran Ranjit

Hasan Balbool

Ghanshyam Magar

Rahul Sethpal

Himanshu Chaudhary

Ravindra Chauhan

Ashish

Mohit

 

Jaipur Pink Panthers

Retained Players:

Sunil Kumar

Arjun Deshwal

Ajith Kumar V

Reza Mirbhageri

Bhavani Rajput

Sahul Kumar

Ankush

Abhishek KS

Ashish

Devank

Players bought at auction:

Amir Hossein Mohammadmaleki

Shashank B

Lucky Sharma

Lavish

Navneet

Rahul Chaudhari

Sumit

 

Patna Pirates

Retained Players:

Sachin

Neeraj Kumar

Manish

Thiyagarajan Yuvaraj

Naveen Sharma

Ranjit Venkatramana Naik

Anuj Kumar

Players bought at auction:

Manjeet

Zheng-Wei Chen

Daniel Odhiambo

Rohit

Sajin Chandrasekar

Krishan

Ankit

Deepak Kumar

Mahendra Choudhary

Sandeep Kumar

Rakesh Narwal

Sanjay

 

Puneri Paltan

Retained Players:

Abhinesh Nadarajan

Gaurav Khatri

Sanket Sawant

Pankaj Mohite

Aslam Inamdar

Mohit Goyat

Akash Shinde

Badal Singh

Aditya Shinde

Players bought at auction:

Mohammadreza Shadloui Chiyanneh

Vahid Rezaeimehr

Ahmed Mustafa Enamdar

Ishwar

Hardee

 

Tamil Thalaivas

Retained Players:

Ajinkya Pawar

Sagar

Himanshu

M Abhishek

Sahil

Mohit

Aashish

Narender

Himanshu

Jatin

Players bought at auction:

Himanshu Singh

Selvamani K

Ritik

Masanmutu Lakshnanan

Satish Kanan

Amirhossein Bastami

Mohammadreza Kaboudrahangi

 

Telugu Titans

Retained Players:

Parvesh Bhainswal

Rajnish

Mohit

Nitin

Vijay

Players bought at auction:

Pawan Sehrawat

Hamid Mirzaei Nader

Milad Jabbari

Shankar Bhimraj Gadai

Omkar R. More

Gaurav Dahiya

Mohit

Ajit Pandurang Pawar

Robin Chaudhary

 

U Mumba

Retained Players:

Surinder Singh

Jai Bhagwan

Rinku

Heidarali Ekrami

Shivam

Shivansh Thakur

Pranay Vinay Rane

Rupesh

Sachin

Players bought at auction:

Girish Maruti Ernak

Mahendra Singh

Guman Singh

Amirmohammad Zafardanesh

Alireza Mirzaeian

Rohit Yadav

Kunal

Visvanath V

Saurav Parthe

 

U.P. Yoddhas

Retained Players:

Pardeep Narwal

Nitesh Kumar

Sumit

Ashu Singh

Surender Gill

Anil Kumar

Mahipal

Players bought at auction:

Vijay Malik

Samuel Wafala

Helvic Wanjala

Harendra Kumar

Gulveer Singh

Gurdeep

Kiran Laxman Magar

Nitin Panwar

Photo credit: Alamy

One of India’s native sports, kabaddi is one of the country’s indigenous sports that requires players to combine agility, strength and strategy.

It is believed to have been played recreationally by Gautam Buddha - the founder of Buddhism - and has a rich history in the Indian subcontinent dating back 4000 years.

On the global stage, kabaddi first came into the limelight in 1936 when it was showcased as an exhibition sport before the commencement of the Berlin Olympics.

The sport though rapidly grew in popularity over the last century, particularly in Asia, and was included as a demonstration sport at the 1951 and 1982 Asian Games.

However, it was in 1990 that kabaddi received the rightful exposure that it deserved on the international stage after being included in the Asian Games programme for its 1990 edition in Beijing, China.

Ever since 1990, kabaddi has been a part of all the Asian Games programmes that have followed.

Kabaddi at the Asian Games was solely a men’s only competition up until 2006. However, 2010 saw the introduction of the women’s kabaddi event and it has remained a permanent fixture in all subsequent Asian Games programmes.

The Indian kabaddi teams - both men’s and women’s - have dominated the sport at the Asian Games over the years.

The 1990 Asian Games saw an unbeaten Indian team win gold after competing with five other teams in a single round-robin format for the men’s event.

The next three editions of the Asian Games followed the same round-robin format for men’s kabaddi and India triumphed to clinch gold in each of those editions, not losing even one game along the way.

The following three Asian Games from 2006 to 2014 introduced knockout fixtures after the league stage round-robin matches but it made no difference to the Indian juggernaut as they continued to win gold without losing a single match.

India’s stranglehold on gold at kabaddi in the Asian Games was finally broken by Iran in 2018 when they upset the kabaddi heavyweights by condemning them to a defeat in the semi-finals. As a result, India bagged bronze instead of gold at the Asian Games in 2018. However, India's men's and women's teams reclaimed gold in the next edition of the Asian Games.

In the women’s kabaddi event, India has won three of the four editions in 2010, 2014 and 2022. They lost the 2018 edition of the Asian Games to Iran.

Asian Games kabaddi winners list men

Edition	Gold Medal	Silver Medal	Bronze Medal
1990, Beijing	India	Bangladesh	Pakistan
1994, Hiroshima	India	Bangladesh	Pakistan
1998, Bangkok	India	Pakistan	Bangladesh
2002, Busan	India	Bangladesh	Pakistan
2006, Doha	India	Pakistan	Bangladesh
2010, Guangzhou	India	Iran	Pakistan, Japan
2014, Incheon	India	Iran	South Korea, Pakistan
2018, Jakarta	Iran	South Korea	Pakistan, India
2022, Guangzhou	India	Iran	Pakistan, Chinese Taipei

Asian Games kabaddi winners list women

Edition	Gold Medal	Silver Medal	Bronze Medal
2010, Guangzhou	India	Thailand	Bangladesh, Iran
2014, Incheon	India	Iran	Thailand, Bangladesh
2018, Jakarta	Iran	India	Chinese Taipei, Thailand
2022, Guangzhou	India	Chinese Taipei	Iran, Nepal

 Photo credit: Alamy 

The Yuva Kabaddi Series (YKS), India’s first year-round sports tournament, is back for the Winter Edition in 2022. 

It has aided many talented players with a massive platform to hone and showcase their skills to a large audience. The top performers from the series have gone on to play at the highest levels of the sport. Only players aged 23 or below can participate in the series.

The Yuva Kabaddi Series Winter Edition 2022 kick-started with the Survival Round on November 27, 2022. Hampi Heroes, who lifted the Monsoon Edition title, will look to maintain their dominance and retain the crown. Chola Veerans and Palani Tuskers make their debut.

The Survival Round, which ends on December 7, will be followed by the Booster, Challenger and Summit rounds. 

All matches will take place at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Pondicherry. The final will take place on January 4, 2023, as part of the Summit round.

Yuva Kabaddi Series Winter Edition 2022 points system

The team that scores the most points after 40 minutes is declared the winner. A win with a score difference of seven or more secures the winning team six points and none to the losing team. However, a victory with a score difference of fewer than seven points awards the winners only six points, while the losers gain one point. Teams earn three points for a tie.

The qualified teams get points based on their standings at the end of every round. These are carried forward to the next round. Six points are awarded to the top-ranked team, while only one for the sixth-placed side.

Win percentage acts as a first tiebreaker on the points table, followed by score difference, total score and a coin toss as the second, third and fourth, respectively.

In the Survival Round, all 10 teams will play each other in the round-robin format. However, the bottom team will suffer elimination, while the remaining teams will advance to the subsequent rounds.

Yuva Kabaddi Series Winter Edition 2022 points table

Survival Round

Position	Team	Played	Win	Loss	Tie	Score difference	Points	Points per match
1	Hampi Heroes	9	7	2	0	94	42	4.667
2	Periyar Panthers	9	6	2	1	45	38	4.222
3	Aravalli Arrows	9	6	3	0	78	36	4.000
4	Palani Tuskers	9	5	4	0	96	32	3.556
5	Chola Veerans	9	5	3	1	79	32	3.556
6	Panchala Pride	9	5	4	0	74	31	3.444
7	Murthal Magnets	9	5	4	0	-26	28	3.111
8	Vijayanagara Veers	9	4	5	0	-75	22	2.444
9	Kaziranga Rhinos	9	1	8	0	-181	8	0.889
10	Tadoba Tigers	9	0	9	0	-154	1	0.111

Booster Round

Position	Team	Played	Win	Loss	Tie	Score difference	Points	Carry Forward Points	Total Points
1	Hampi Heroes	8	7	1	0	111	41	6	47
2	Palani Tuskers	8	7	1	0	144	42	3	45
3	Aravalli Arrows	8	5	3	0	46	29	4	33
4	Murthal Magnets	8	5	3	0	-7	28	0	28
5	Panchala Pride	8	4	4	0	18	26	1	27
6	Periyar Panthers	8	3	5	0	-26	19	5	24
7	Chola Veerans	8	3	5	0	-6	20	2	22
8	Kaziranga Rhinos	8	1	7	0	-111	6	0	6
9	Vijayanagara Veers	8	1	7	0	-169	5	0	5

Challenger Round

Position	Team	Played	Win	Loss	Tie	Score difference	Points	Carry Forward Points	Total Points
1	Palani Tuskers	7	6	0	1	93	36	5	41
2	Hampi Heroes	7	5	2	0	81	31	6	37
3	Aravalli Arrows	7	3	3	1	32	22	4	26
4	Chola Veerans	7	4	2	1	20	25	0	25
5	Murthal Magnets	7	3	4	0	68	20	3	23
6	Panchala Pride	7	3	4	0	-13	20	2	22
7	Periyar Panthers	7	1	5	1	-96	9	1	10
8	Kaziranga Rhinos	7	1	6	0	-185	5	0	5

 

Featured image: Alamy

A High 5 in kabaddi is registered by a player when they score five or more tackle points in a single match.

Jaipur Pink Panthers’ left corner defender Ankush Ashok topped the list of most High 5s in PKL 9, with nine in 24 matches.

Ankush Ashok has been the standout performer for the Pink Panthers as he also tops the list of players with the most tackle points in Pro Kabaddi Season 9.

Inaugural edition winners Jaipur Pink Panthers were among the first teams to qualify for the playoffs of PKL Season 9.

Telugu Titans’ Parvesh Bhainswal and Patna Pirates all-rounder Mohammadreza Shadloui Chiyaneh were the closest challengers to Ankush, with six High 5s each.

Chiyaneh scripted history earlier this season when he put on a show against Dabang Delhi, amassing 16 tackle points in that match to become the player with the most tackle points in a single PKL match in the competition’s history.

Chiyaneh also amassed the most tackle points (89) and the most High 5s (10) in Season 8.

Unfortunately, Parvesh Bhainswal’s efforts went in vain as Telugu Titans’ poor form all season long meant they finished bottom of the table.

Tamil Thalaivas' Sagar, Haryana Steelers’ Jaideep Dahiya and Bengal Warriors’ Girish Maruti Ernak also feature in the list of Most High 5s in PKL Season 9.  

Most High 5s in PKL Season 9

Player	Team	Matches	High 5s
Ankush Ashok	Jaipur Pink Panthers	24	9
Parvesh Bhainswal	Telugu Titans	21	6
Mohammadreza Chiyaneh	Patna Pirates	20	6
Sagar Rathee	Tamil Thalaivas	17	5
Sunil Kumar	Jaipur Pink Panthers	23	4
Jaideep Dahiya	Haryana Steelers	21	4
Girish Maruti Ernak	Bengal Warriors	18	4
Fazel Atrachali	Puneri Paltan	20	3
Sourav Gulia	Gujarat Giants	16	3
Rinku Hari	U Mumba	19	3

 

Featured Photo: Pro Kabaddi League