IPL vs PKL. Is Kabaddi Dominating Cricket?

India is a country where cricket is not treated as a just sport only but it is like religion. In such a Cricket dominating country the chances of the rise of other games are negligible. But, an Indian game starts dominating cricket and becomes one of the most loved games in the country. This game is none other than our ‘KABADDI’. Yes, you heard that right. Kabaddi game is competing with cricket and became the second most loved game of the country. Let’s prove it by the statistics, the viewership of PKL has grown by 51 % in the last 4 seasons which is the most for any league in India. Millions of viewers have spent 71 Billion minutes on TV to watch the PKL season 7.

History of PKL.

In 2014 Marshal sports in conjugation with star sports had organized PKL 2014 for the first time. This experiment proved right when the league started to gain viewership after very few matches and it got 435m viewers in the first season which was simply unbelievable. Even IPL had got just 560 million viewers that year.  Season by season the viewership increased up to billions.

PKL vs IPL Comparison.

Since IPL was started in 2008 and PKL in 2014, 6 years after the IPL, therefore, the cricket league had a lead of 6 years. But the viewership started astonishing everyone, here are some statistics; –

1 . Viewership share of a league since 2014 –

2014 – IPL –  39.3 % and PKL – 30.5 %. This was season 1^st of the PKL but it gave competition to IPL.

2016 – IPL – 44.9 % and PKL – 27.8% this downfall in viewership happened because of the clashing of dates of the PKL and IPL.

2019 – IPL –  52.3% and PKL – 39.2%.

Financial analytics: –

The prize money of PKL 2019 was 3 crore and Ipl had 20 crores. Ipl is completely dominating  PKL here.  But let’s have a look that who organizes these leagues.  IPL is organized by BCCI  which is a government body but PKL is organized by Marshall Sports, because of this IPL has a huge advantage because this reason allows the cricket league to run more smoothly by having plenty of stadiums, and other facilities too.

When Rakesh Kumar was bought by Patna Pirates for the first season of Pro Kabaddi 2014, he went with the highest price among the lot – fetching a total of Rs 12.80 lakh. but in season Pardeep Narwal was sold for a price of 1.65 crores which shows the financial development of the kabaddi game.

It came to know that sponsors were interested in investing money in PKL more than ICC Men’s T- 20 World cup.

Conclusion: –

Undoubtedly the PKL proved as a boon for the Kabaddi game and kabaddi lovers, it has played the same role as the winning of the 1983 world cup played in the flourishing of cricket in India.

If the fans keep supporting the game then definitely the PKL will defeat IPL in the upcoming few years.

Since season 8 is yet to come therefore we are waiting for the new milestones of PKL.