Haryana’s village grounds and PKL money keep feeding India’s kabaddi gold

India’s double gold in kabaddi at the 2026 Asian Games has turned attention back to Haryana, the state that has long fed the national game. Both the men’s and women’s teams beat Iran in their finals at Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on Saturday, 26 September, to defend their Asian Games titles, and Haryana players had a strong presence in both squads.

Behind those medals sits a system that starts long before any national camp: village playgrounds, local coaches who spot talent early, community backing and, since 2014, the financial pull of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL). Together they explain why so many players on the path to the national level still come from the state.

A 15-year-old in Rohtak, and a father ready to sell his farms

For many young players in Haryana, the journey begins on muddy village grounds. They learn the basics of raiding and tackling there before local coaches identify their talent and guide them towards district, state and national competitions.

In Bahu Akhbarpur village in Rohtak, 15-year-old Rakesh Balhara is training with the aim of becoming a professional kabaddi player. His inspiration is Shillu Balhara, an international player known for Circle Kabaddi, the format called Badi Kabaddi locally.

Rakesh said his family was prepared to make major sacrifices for that ambition. “My father is a great admirer of Shillu Balhara and wants me to be the next Shillu Balhara. He is willing to sell his farms to see me become an iconic player like Shillu,” he said.

His story reflects the hopes of many families in the state who see sport as a realistic career for their children, and the routes into that career have widened considerably.

PKL turned a village game into a paying career

The launch of the PKL in 2014 changed the way young players looked at kabaddi. Franchise teams, player auctions and television coverage brought the sport to a wider audience and gave players a chance to earn money and build professional careers.

National kabaddi coach Naveen Kumar said the league had changed the game’s appeal. “Pro Kabaddi League is the next most-watched sport on television after cricket. It’s not just the fame; the tournament has also made the game financially more rewarding for young players.”

The auction figures back him up. The highest auction bid rose from Rs 12.8 lakh in 2014 to Rs 2.605 crore in 2023. In the 2025 auction, teams spent Rs 37.90 crore on 121 players.

Haryana takes a large share of that market. According to Kuldeep Dalal, chairman of the Amateur Kabaddi Association, Haryana, 110 of the 243 players in the league season he cited were from the state, roughly 45 per cent of the entire player pool. No other detail on the season was given, but the scale of the figure underlines how dependent the league has become on Haryana’s production line.

Six playgrounds, hundreds of players, one village

The growth is just as visible at the bottom of the pyramid, where coaches, families and local communities carry much of the load. Balwan Singh, sarpanch of Purkhas village, described the scale of participation there.

“There are six kabaddi playgrounds in the village where hundreds of players practice every day,” he said. “The community supports their efforts, felicitates winners and even honours parents for putting the children in Kabaddi. Children as young as 6 to 10 years come to the ground to play.”

That kind of backing matters because it starts children on raiding and tackling years before any franchise or selector sees them. It also gives parents public recognition for a choice that, as the Balhara family shows, can come with real financial risk.

The PKL is not the only draw. The promise of a government job through sports quotas remains another strong motivation for families weighing whether to push their children towards kabaddi, offering a measure of security alongside the possibility of an auction payday.

Between those two incentives, and the village grounds and academies that turn them into trained players, Haryana remains a key contributor to Indian kabaddi as the sport reaches more fans across the country. With both Asian Games titles retained, the next wave, including teenagers like Rakesh Balhara in Rohtak, is already at work on the mud.