NEW DELHI: Indian Boxing League (IBL), a franchise-based league for Indian boxers that has been in the works since 2017, will finally see the light of day tentatively in July-August, the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) announced here Tuesday.
The BFI had floated a tender for the commercial and organising rights for the pro-style league in 2017. It will run for a period of three weeks and will tentatively start by the end of July.
“We are trying to organise it after the elections are over. In July-August,” Atul Pande, managing director of sports management company Sportzlive, which owns the commercial rights to the league. For the record, Sportzlive is also the commercial rights holder for the Premier Badminton League.
IBL will see prolific Indian pugilists, including newly-crowned Asian Champion Amit Panghal, Shiva Thapa and veteran L Sarita Devi fight alongside foreign boxers.
“A lot of Indian players have already signed up for the league. We are also in process of signing up international boxers to have a mixed men and women international team,” Pande told the news agency.
A caravan format, in which all teams move from one city to another during the course of the tournament, will be followed.
“The tournament will run for three weeks and the team owners, title sponsors and everything will be finalised later. It will follow a caravan format, similar to other leagues in the India,” Pande said.
“We want the elections to get over because the interested franchises will make their final decision only after the results are announced,” he added.
Star Sports has already been roped in as the official broadcaster of the event.
“It will be showcased on Star. The idea is to become the number one sporting event. Our target is to reach 10 crore (100 million) viewers in the first year in television and 200 million in digital,” Pande said.
