Sports desk27 minutes ago
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India’s second largest franchise tournament Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) is starting today. The 12th season begins on National Sports Day. On this day, hockey magician Major Dhyanchand was born, which the Government of India declared his birthday as National Sports Day to remember.
The Pro Kabaddi League started in 2014, when there were only 8 teams in the tournament. The popularity of the game made it a favorite of the audience, now 12 teams are participating in the 12th season. The tournament is also very competitive, where 8 different teams have become champions in the 11 seasons. Only 2 teams could pick up the trophy more than 1.
Everything about PKL-12 in 10 questions …
Question-1: Which teams are the opening match between? The 12th season of Pro Kabaddi League starts on 29 August 2025 at 8 pm. The opening match will be played at the Vishwanath Sports Club in Visakhapatnam, the seeds of Tamil Thalaivas and Telugu Titans. The second match will be played between Bangalore Bulls and Puneri Paltan from 9 pm.
Question-2: How many venue will be matched? The tournament has 4 venue for the group stage. From August 29 to September 11, there will be 28 matches in the wizag. 24 matches will be played in Jaipur from 12 to 27 September. From 29 September to 10 October, Chennai will also have 24 matches. Then from October 11, the remaining 32 matches of the group stage will be played in Delhi, which will run till 23 October.
The venue of the playoff stage is not fixed, 9 matches will be played between 8 teams in the playoffs. All matches are likely to be on the same venue. The tournament may be finalized on Sunday, 26 October.
Question-3: What is the format? There are 7-7 players in each team. There are 2 halfs of 20-20 minutes. The player of the reding team gets 30 seconds to make 1 raid. The raider has to touch a player of the defending team before this time and come back to its part. During this time, if the defending team caught the raider, then the score gets to the defending team.
After full time, the team that achieves more points is the winner. Teams can also substitute players during the match. The match is considered to be a tie after the score after full time. The match winning team does not get 2 points and the losing team does not get any point. This time, there will be no bonus point on the 7 plus point win.
Question-4: How will the tie breaker decide? Both teams were given 1-1 point when the match was tied by the 11th season. However, this time the tie will be used for a tie match. Both teams will name 7-7 players. Of which 5 will do raids. There will be no player out in the tiebreaker. Even if the raider touched the defender, he will still be in the match.
Both teams will get 5-5 raids. The name of the raider and the arrival time will be decided before the tiebreaker starts. Every red du or dye will be red, if the raider cannot achieve the point, it will be dismissed. Touching the walk line will give a bonus point. Teams in the tiebreaker will not be able to substitution. If the tiebreaker is also tied, both teams will also get 1-1 Golden Red. The team taking more points here will be considered the winner. However, if the score remains equal here, then the winner will be decided from the toss.
Question-5: What will be the playoff schedule? There will be 2 matches a day during the group stage. 3 matches will be played every day from October 15. The group stage will have 8 triple headers. A team will play 18 matches in the group stage. Each team will play 2-2 matches against the remaining 9 teams. After the group stage is over, teams living on the top-8 position of the points table will enter the playoffs. The teams living on the top-2 position will have more opportunities to reach the finals. At the same time, the remaining 6 teams will have to struggle more.
- Teams that finish 5 to 8 numbers will play play-in. The match of number-5 will be held here with number-6 team. At the same time, the match of the number 7 team will be with the number 8 team. The losing team will be out here. Both the winning teams will clash in Eliminator-1. Eliminator-1 winning team will go to Eliminator-2, while the losing team will be out.
- There will be a mini qualifier between the teams at number three and fourth. The winning team will enter Eliminator-3, while the losing will take on the winner of Eliminator-1 in Eliminator-2. Eliminator-2 winning team will play Eliminator-3. The winning team will go to Qualifier-2, while the losing team will be out.
- Teams living on top-2 position will clash in qualifier-1, the winning team will go to the final. The losing team will go to Qualifier-2. Qualifier-1 and qualifier-2 will be finalized between winning teams.
Question-6: Which teams are participating? This time also 12 teams are participating in the tournament. Haryana is the defending champion of the Steelers tournament. The team won the title by defeating Patna Pirates last season final. See the names of all 12 teams and their captains in graphics …
Question-7: Which is the most successful team? Patna Pirates PKL is the most successful team in history. The team became champions 3 times in a row in the third, fourth and fifth season. After him, Jaipur Pink Panthers have won the title 2 times. Apart from these 2, no team could win the title 2 times. However, 7 different teams have won the title 1-1 times.
Question-8: Who is the most successful raider? Pardeep Narwal, who was unsold in the 12th season auction, is the best raider of Pro Kabaddi history. He had 1801 points in 190 matches. After not selling in the auction, Pardeep retired from PKL. Maninder Singh, the captain of Bengal Warizer, is at number two with 1528 red points. They can break Pardeep’s record.
Question-9: Who is the most successful defender? Iran’s legendary defender Fazal Atrachali is the top defender of the tournament. He has 545 tackle points in 188 matches. He will be seen playing for Dabang Delhi this season. He made his PKL debut with U Mumba.
Question-10: Where can you see the tournament? PKL’s broadcasting rights is near Geographstar. Viewers will be able to watch PKL through Star Sports on TV and Geographstar on OTT platform. Star will have a commentary in 8 languages. Which includes English, Hindi as well as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bhojpuri and Haryanvi.
The audience will also have the option to watch matches with a referee cam with a dugout view on the OTT platform this time. The commentary panel will feature stars like Ravi Kishan, Srinivas Reddy, Mohit Chillar, Vishal Manane, Rishank Devadiga, and Mamta Pujari.