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On Saturday and Sunday, the Birmingham Bulls will start defending their British Kabaddi League championship against WV Aldersley in Wolverhampton.The Bulls dominated the inaugural championship last year, which now features 10 teams from throughout the UK. The original competition included eight teams. The following set of games are held at Walsall Hunters preceding two tournaments in Birmingham as well as Glasgow in May.
The matches can be seen live on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport websites. The Scottish kabaddi teams competing are Glasgow Unicorns and Edinburgh Eagles, with the other six teams being Manchester Raiders, Leicester Warriors, Wolverhampton Wolfpack, Harrow Heroes, Nottingham Royals, and Luton Bengal Tigers.
Joel Lavery, strategic lead of the West Midlands Growth Company spoke to the BBC about the upcoming season of the British Kabaddi League “We’re delighted to welcome the British Kabaddi League to WV Aldersley sports village.Kabaddi is so accessible. You don’t need infrastructure; it’s groups of friends playing together. We think the future is to embed it in our schools across the Midlands.”
He further spoke about how the three teams are going to join the competition in the upcoming season which will add to the quality and improve the viewership as well. The three new teams – Luton, Harrow and Nottingham, with London Lions not competing this year – are looking competitive and they’re representing their communities. We are hoping for a successful tournament and we’ll see who is crowned worthy champions.”
Who is the team to look out for in the upcoming edition of the British Kabaddi League?
It is believed that the second season of this year’s British Kabaddi League (BKL), which will feature new teams and BBC cameras once more documenting the action, will raise the prominence of the ancient sport originated in India even more.
The Manchester Raiders, founded by Moinul Islam and located in Oldham for training, are Greater Manchester’s representatives in the BKL. For years, Moinul has worked to promote kabaddi in Britain. He also co-runs the social venture Outta Skool, which has been operating since 2005.
