Ten foreign players in Super Kabbadi League

KARACHI: As many as ten foreign players will be part of the first Super Kabaddi League (SKL) which will explode into action at Lahore from May 1.

The ten franchises picked their ten-member squads for the first ever professional league of the country from a draft of 126 players which also had players from Iran, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iraq, Kenya, Japan and Malaysia. The maximum purchase limit of a player was Rs1.5 million.

The league will last till May 10 and is expected to attract a huge crowd as Punjab is the hub of kabaddi. According to the Strawberry Sports Management which is organising the league, each side picked two from Platinum category, seven from Gold and one from foreign.

The organisers said that Peshawar Haiders, Kashmir Janbaz, Gujrat Warriors, Sahiwal Bulls, Karachi Zorawar, Islamabad All Stars, Faisalabad Sherdil, Lahore Thunders, Gwadar Bahadurs and Multan Sikandar will be vying for the crown.

There were 20 players in Platinum, 90 in Gold and 16 in foreign category. In the foreign category, there were five players from Iran, two each from Sri Lanka, Iraq, Kenya, Bangladesh and Malaysia, and one from Japan. The organisers said that initially coaches were picked through a draw. Zahid Shaheed will coach Peshawar, Adnan Arshad Kashmir, Rahat Maqsood Gujrat, Muhammad Shafiq Sahiwal, Ghulam Muhammad Karachi, Saifullah Islamabad, Mubashir Iqbal Faisalabad, Iqrar Hussain Lahore, Badshah Gul Gwadar and Ghulam Ali Butt Multan.The players were picked after the teams got their coaches.

Squads

Faisalabad: Nasir Ali, Abrar Khan (Platinum), Azam Shah, Haider Ali, Rashid Mehboob, Sharafat Ali, Abid Hussain, Ahmed, Waseem Akram (Gold) and Ranedo Chamara (Sri Lanka).

Gujrat: Muhammad Imran, Tehseenullah (Platinum), Waqar Ali, Dildar Ahmed, Muhammad Tariq, Rai Mubashir Ali, Asad Ali, Shabbir Ullah, Saif Ullah (Gold), Muhammad Baba Ali (Iran).

Gwadar: Abrar Hussain, Ali Shan (Platinum), Waqar Aslam, Rehman Ali, Adil Hussain, Shoaib Mumtaz, Ejaz Masih, Bilal Khan, Shahbaz Ali (Gold), Malanda Chatoranga (Sri Lanka).

Karachi: Muhammad Nadeem, Wajid Ali (Platinum), Muhammad Mushahid, Abdul Manan, Muhammad Saleem, Shabbir Ahmed, Abbas Ali, Saif-ul-Malook, Adeel Azam (Gold), Masood Karim (Bangladesh).

Multan: Waseem Sajjad, Arsalan Ahmed (Platinum), Sabir Ali, Abdul Mukhtar, Waqas Hussain, Junaid Sarwar, Muhammad Aqeel, Muhammad Mustafa Bijli, Amjad Ali (Gold), and Jabir Hamati (Iran).

Sahiwal: Muhammad Nisar, Sajjad Shoukat (Platinum), Waqas Ali, Hasan Ali, Amir Mehmood, Afzal Ali, Faizan Riaz, Abid Hussain, Rafiq (Gold), Saboj (Bangladesh). Peshawar: Ikhlaq Hussain, Usman Zada (Platinum), Qaiser Abbas, Subhan Aslam, Usman Khalid, Muhammad Yousuf, Muhammad Yaseen, Abdul Rehman, Imran Ali (Gold) and Milad Sherhak (Iran).

Islamabad: Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Arshad (Platinum), Zahid Nawaz, Hasan Raza, Shahid Iqbal, Muhammad Zeeshan, Faisal Nadeem, Asif Jaja, Zain Ali (Gold), and Farhad Nagi (Iran).

Lahore: Mudasir Shah, Muhammad Sufyan (Platinum), Ahsan Mehmood, Atif Suhail, Muhammad Afzal, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Mujahid, Muhammad Abid, Mazhar Iqbal (Gold), Murtaza Jeelam (Iran).

Kashmir: Razzaq, Atif Waheed (Platinum), Saddam Hussain, Muzammil Hussain, Sajjad Ahmed, Asim Hanif, Tariq Munir, Tauheed Shifa, Sehram Ali (Gold), and Mouglen (Malaysia).