MUMBAI: After five successful seasons, the VIVO Pro Kabaddi League is gearing up for its next edition with the announcement of the “elite retained players”.
The League Monday announced the players who would continue their association with their respective franchises for Pro Kabaddi Season VI, starting 19th October. Nine of the 12 teams have retained between one and four players. Three franchises – U Mumba, Jaipur Pink Panthers and UP Yoddha – have released all their players.
Marking the first milestone for season VI, a total of 21 players from Season V were retained by their respective franchises. The “Elite Player Retention” framework is a key constituent to build team continuity for the longer term and the franchises were thus encouraged to retain key players of their choosing for the upcoming season.
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 VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season VI offers the highest level of talent and competition for India’s own sport.”
The full list of retained players is as follows:
Bengal Warriors: Surjeet Singh, Maninder Singh
Bengaluru Bulls: Rohit Kumar
Dabang Delhi KC: Meraj Sheykh
Gujarat Fortune Giants: Sachin, Sunil Kumar, Mahendra Ganesh Rajput
Haryana Steelers: Kuldeep Singh
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
Jaipur Pink Panthers: No players retained
UP Yoddha: No players retained
