Pro Panja League is in advanced talks with the Kerala state government to hold an event at a houseboat in the backwaters of Alleppey or in front of Kochi Fort, according to PPL co-founder Parvin Dabas.
Dabas made his comments while speaking at the International Sports Summit Kerala 2024, while speaking on the importance of sports in the country, image building and on the sports economy.
Said Dabas, “Sports is changing in country and we have realized the soft power importance of sports in country, image building and also the sports economy. I saw the potential for Armwrestling or Panja as we call it, to be a sport of the masses or as we called it, ‘Bharat Ka Khel’. What is great about this sport is it has a low financial entry point for all kinds of players. We have been donating several Armwrestling tables across the country in schools and colleges to encourage community sport. We are the only league in the country which is all-inclusive. On one single platform, we have men, women and especially-abled. They all get the same pay as per the ranking and they get the same facilities as well.”
“Now coming to Kerala, 40% of our Armwrestlers come from here. I am grateful to the Kerala Government for their support. Our first season winners were also, not surprisingly, the Kochi KD’s. So, I can say it with utmost confidence that Panja has a huge community and athlete base in Kerala,” he added.
The inaugural season of the PPL, which took place at the IGI Stadium in New Delhi from 28th July till 13th August 2023, witnessed 32 million unique tv viewers on Sony Sports and DD Sports and 300 million views on social media platforms, per Dabas. Sharing his thoughts on the same, he said, “32 million is a huge number but this time we are targetting 60 million. If you look at a per channel per day average, we are third in the country in our very first season after IPL and Kabaddi.”
Dabas also shed light on how PPL links well with sports tourism. He said, “We launched Pro Panja League 3 weeks before the lockdown but unfortunately, we had the lockdown. We wanted to put it in front of big tourist destinations and once the lockdown was over, we were able to do that. We played the sport in front of Gateway of India, at Gwalior Fort, inside a boat in Bhopal lake and on top of Majestic Pride casino boat in the Panjim river in Goa. The idea was to make the whole area into a stadium and include the tourist destinations as the stadium.”
Dabas also made an important announcement regarding the Pro Panja League being held at a houseboat in the backwaters of Alleppey or in front of Kochi Fort with support from the Kerala government.
