Pardeep Narwal announces shock retirement after going unsold in Pro Kabaddi Season 12 auction
Pardeep Narwal, the most successful player in Pro Kabaddi League history with three titles, announced his retirement from kabaddi on Monday after going unsold during the PKL 12 players auction.
He shocked kabaddi fans with the announcement during a live video with sports broadcaster Sunil Taneja. He will now be seen as a coach, he told.
Narwal played a key role in Patna Pirates' three consecutive PKL titles during his five-season stint with the franchise before moving to UP Yoddhas in Season 8.
ALSO READ | Pardeep Narwal goes unsold in Pro Kabaddi League 12 auctions
The 28-year-old is the most prolific raider in PKL history with 1801 raid points at an average of 9.47 raid points per match.
However, in the last four seasons with UP Yoddhas and Bengaluru Bulls, Narwal has struggled to secure a spot among the league's top five players for raid points.
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India Gazette
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Apurv Gupta, director of contact sports at Capri Sports and the chief executive officer of Bengal Warriorz, which won the league in season seven, adds, 'It's a competitive league when you have several champions. It tells us that PKL is competitive, is exciting, difficult to predict who will win." Capri Sports' interest in PKL is indicative of the bullish attitude towards the league. An initiative of Capri Global Holdings, a financial firm, Capri Sports took over the Bengal team in 2023 after initially investing in International League T20 (ILT20) cricket, and subsequently expanding with teams across different sports such as the UP Warriorz (Women's Premier League cricket), Sharjah Warriors (ILT20) in the UAE and Rajasthan Warriors (Ultimate Kho Kho). GROWING VIEWERSHIP 'This modernised version of a sport that originated in India has the new generation tuning into it. Just the way it's been packaged, broadcast, structured, with rule changes like the do-or-die raid or the super tackle, contribute to its success," adds Gupta. 'There is something happening every 30 seconds in the game," says Kandpal. 'You need only 40 minutes to watch a match which helps when attention spans are reducing. Game duration plays a big role." All team promoters view the success of the league from the lens of its growing, 200-million-plus viewership, bigger talent pool of athletes, younger stars breaking through the ranks and some less tangible ones. 'You see younger guys trying to innovate, find the best way to tackle and raid. It's a subtle yet critical sign of success, as athletes find better ways of playing, competitiveness evolves," believes Gupta. Several franchise owners, like Capri Sports, have teams in other leagues as well and therefore have a better understanding of the country's sporting landscape. 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