10 foreign players to feature in Super Kabaddi League

KARACHI: As many as 10 foreign players will be part of the First Super Kabaddi League (SKL), which will explode into action in Lahore from May 1.

The 10 franchises picked their 10-member squads for the first ever professional league of the country from a draft of 126 players. The players from Iran, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iraq, Kenya, Japan and Malaysia will participate in the league. The maximum purchase limit of a player had been kept as Rs1.5million.

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, that each side picked 10 players each, two from Platinum, seven from Gold and one from foreign category.

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

The 126 players, who were part of the draft, had been divided into three categories with 20 players in the Platinum category, 90 in Gold and 16 players in foreign category. They said that initially coaches were picked through lucky draw. And under the same result, Zahid Shaheed (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) would perform their duties with their respective outfits.

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

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), 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), Milad Sherhak (Iran).

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