PKL 2025: Anupam Goswami lauds rebirth of raiders ahead of Chennai leg
Pro Kabaddi League Chairman Anupam Goswami lauded the intensity of competitiveness across the first two legs of the tournament and a strong showing by raiders so far ahead of the of its Chennai leg here on Sunday.
“If you look at this data and what the trends are, it is intense, and the competition is very even,” Goswami told reporters on the eve of the third leg of the competition.
“There are 12 teams, the difference between the leading team, Dabang Delhi K.C., and the team in eighth (Tamil Thalaivas), is only 6 points.”
Of the 52 matches completed in the first two legs of the tournament, 27 were decided by a margin of five points or less, while seven matches went to the newly-introduced tiebreakers, including two matches decided by Golden Raids. 11 matches have also been decided on the final raid of the match.
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Another point of prominence for Goswami has been what he dubbed “the rebirth of raiders.”
“When we launched PKL Season 1 in 2014, it was primarily a raider’s game, the heroes were raiders. So, over the years, and we are into our 12th season now, there was more structured thinking about defence and the role of the cover, the corner. It became process driven, with focus on set pieces, and sorting out the raider. This season is actually turning out to be the return of the raider,” he said.
Two specific examples the League Commissioner pointed to were Patna Pirates’ Ayan Lohchab, who has carried out 20-point matches twice already this season, and Bengal Warriorz’s Devank Dalal, who became the fastest raider to 400 points in PKL.
“One of these days, this kind of data will be understood and appreciated more as comparable to a performance by a Viv Richards or a Bradman,” he noted.
With PKL set to return to Chennai for the first time since its return to the caravan format, Goswami made note of Tamil Nadu’s storied legacy as “one of the great kabaddi geographies for the sport.”
“The connection between Tamil Nadu and kabaddi is a long one. I think it’s a very deep cultural connection. There is a very deep community connection, it’s a very deep regional connection within the state”, he said. “So for us to be back in Chennai, for Tamil Thalaivas to be playing in front of its home crowd, I think it’s going to be very special for the league.”
Goswami also briefly touched upon what the future of PKL could potentially look like, noting that while the league had done well to escape what he termed a “choke point” that sports leagues often encounter around the fourth or fifth season, it is unlikely that any new teams will be added soon.
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“We want more leagues to happen in our sports economy. But there are challenges, which are business challenges, and sustainability challenges. So expansion has to be very, very finely calibrated,” he said.
Instead, he emphasised the need for the league to consolidate and look to improve on its existing structures.
“We will stick to our present strength, and make the quality of competition better. We look at differentiated properties within the season, like the play-ins and the play-offs. I think those are areas we have to build upon to optimise ourselves before looking at expansion to new teams,” Goswami explained.
He also added that PKL will look to continue the Melbourne Raid initiative to grow the game, while also looking to expand into West Asia.
Finally, Goswami also touched upon his personal desire to see kabaddi feature in the 2030 Commonwealth Games, having previously mentioned his desire to see the game pitched as an Olympic sport.
“I think we have to have an Olympics vision, the low-hanging fruit we should crack is the Commonwealth Games. And we should definitely have a Commonwealth 2030 goal, because we are very sure that that event is going to take place in India,” Goswami said.
Published on Sep 28, 2025