Is Pro Kabaddi League getting a disadvantage over football and cricket?
I started watching kabaddi by watching the rivalries between star players like Rahul Chaudhary, Ajay Thakur, Pradeep Narwal, and Rohit Kumar. That's what really got me hooked on the sport in the first place.
But the problem with these players is they form out way sooner, like 5 to 7 years, whereas in cricket and football that's still considered an early stage of their career. A cricketer or footballer at that point is usually just hitting their prime, not declining.
If PKL continues like this, it's going to be hard to idolize a star player for more than a few years before a new name takes over.
The form-out could be because of:
- Injuries — like Pawan Sehrawat, who lost a big chunk of his prime to a knee injury.
- Opponents finding their tactics and tackling against it — in Pradeep Narwal's case, he was highly reliant on his dubki, which later made opponents easily guess his next movement and shut it down.
I think the PKL owners need to seriously look into this to make players sustain much longer, otherwise the league is always going to be starting over with a new face every few years instead of building someone fans can follow for a decade or more.