Bengaluru Yodhas launched

 With the first edition of the Pro Wrestling League all set to take off next month, Bengaluru’s team for the tournament, the Bengaluru Yodhas, was unveiled here on Saturday.

The team, owned by Jindal Steel Work (JSW), boasts of an array of national and international talents who will participate in the event to be held between December 10 to 27 across six different cities.

The Bengaluru leg of the tournament will be held on December 23 and 24 at the Koramangala indoor stadium.

Each of the teams in the league will have a total of nine players, including four foreign players.

Narsingh Yadav, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist, will be the icon player for the team which will also feature Bajrang Punia, Sandeep Tomar, Lalita Sherawat and Navjot Kaur forming the Indian component. Davit Modzmanashvili (Georgia), Pavlo Oliynik (Ukraine), Alyssa Lampe (USA) and Johanna Mattsson (Sweden) will complete the foreign group.

The team will be coached by Dhyan Chand awardee Kuldeep Malik and will be led by Yadav.

At a press conference to unveil the Yodhas, Mustafa Ghouse, CEO of JSW sports, spoke about the idea behind acquiring the team. “We have been supporting wrestling by way of our Sports Excellence programme from even before Bengaluru FC was formed. So when this opportunity came up, it was pretty much a no-brainer about getting involved.

“The sport is very popular in the northern parts of the country and we hope to garner an interest in the south as well. In this regard, we have planned a number of activities for the next few weeks through which people can understand the sport better,” said Ghouse.

On paper, the Yodhas have a formidable line-up in the men’s and women’s category and coach Malik believes that one of their biggest strengths will be having Yadav in the side.
“Narsingh (Yadav) is our biggest strength. With that being said, Bajrang (Punia) is one of the smarter wrestlers I have come across and then we have Sandeep (Tomar) who fights extremely well against foreign wrestlers. So it’s a well-rounded team,” Malik said.

The tournament will be held in nine different weight categories and the match will consist of seven bouts lasting three minutes each.

All six teams will play each other once before the top four teams progress to the semifinal of the tournament.