It's raining sports leagues in India! After Kho Kho, now it's time for Pro Panja League

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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It's raining sports leagues in India. Just this year alone there will be two new league launches.

One league that is expected to take off in the second half of 2021 is Ultimate Kho Kho started by Amit Burman, FMCG company Dabur's Chairman. And the other league will be brought to us by actor Parvin Dabas of the Khosla Ka Ghosla fame along with his wife Preeti Jhangiani who too is a Bollywood actor and has worked in films like Mohabbatein.

But what is this league and which sports does it involve?

The league is called The Pro Panja League (PPL) and it is all about arm wrestling.

The thought to start the league came to Dabas' mind in 2016. "It took three to four years to put things together for Pro Panja League. I had registered the Facebook account in 2017. We tied up with the official federation (Indian Armwrestling Federation) in India in 2019."

Ask Dabas why he opted for arm wrestling, he said, "It (arm wrestling) is deep-rooted in a lot of the cultures. Take the example of Parsis. The Parsis have arm wrestling tournaments in their clubs. In addition, India was one of the four original countries to make the arm wrestling federation."

Plans for PPL

Talking about PPL, Dabas said that under the league, three tournaments have been conducted so far and later this year a six-team franchise-based league will be launched. Out of the six teams, Dabas is in talks with two investors from the corporate space and one from the film industry for ownership of three teams.

What is interesting about the teams is that each team will have male players, female players and differently abled players as well.

"There are nine weight divisions. Six men, two women and one specially abled. So, each team will have three athletes in each weight division. Each team will have 27 players," Dabas told Moneycontrol.

Along with the teams, the league is seeing interest from sponsors as Dabas said that they are in talks with a few big brands.

"We had meetings with two big brands just before the lockdown. So, we are revisiting those conversations now and couple of more as well."

When it comes to venue for the league, due to coronavirus outbreak, the league will be restricted to two or one location this year. Going forward, Dabas said that they would like to travel and take the league to Delhi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana. "We are also looking at Kochi, Kozhikode, Bhopal, Lucknow," he said.

While the six-team franchise-based league will be the highlight for Pro Panja League, Dabas is also focusing on building a calendar for the sport. And for that he will be investing USD 5 million in the next two-three years.

"We have conducted three events so far. One ranking tournament and two mega matches. The ranking tournament happened last year on February 29, just two weeks before the first lockdown. For the event, we had 350-400 players and it was inaugurated by Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and boxer Vijender Singh," said Dabas.

After the ranking tournament, COVID-19 played a spoilt sport for PPL and some of the tournaments were kept on hold. "We restarted on February 14 this year when we hosted a mega match in Mumbai. Then we had our third event in Goa which aired on Sony sports," he added.

Dabas further shared about the calendar for PPL every year. "We will have ranking tournament every year which will let players improve their rankings and it will give team owners a chance to know the players. The ranking tournament will be a four to five day event. And the league will be one to two month long event. While in the beginning we will have four to five mega matches, the plan is to have mega matches every month except for the league season."

This year due to rising cases of coronavirus, Dabas said that there is a certain wait and watch happening this month and that May will be quieter.

While COVID-19 is posing some challenges, Dabas is all geared up to have more arm wrestling matches this year thanks to his passion for sports.

"I have always been a sportsman. In school and college, I was in the Basketball team. I also did Taekwondo and afterwards did Kickboxing. I train in boxing. And for me, I guess Panja (arm wrestling) comes from the Jat side of me. I grew up in Delhi and a lot of my cousins were into Panja. It was something to bond with other people."

This is why it doesn't come as a surprise that Dabas is not only looking at launching the franchise based league but is also looking to make Panja or arm wrestling a more popular sport in India.