Ultimate Kho Kho 2022: Full list of players picked in draft, Complete Squad of all 6 Teams

Pune, July 15: A total of 143 best Kho Kho players in the country have been picked up by six franchises for the inaugural edition of the Ultimate Kho Kho in Pune. All six franchises did their best on Thursday (July 14) to pick strong squads as they will fight for the title in Season 1.

The traditional indic-sport of Kho Kho is set to enter a new era with the inception of India's first-ever franchise-based Kho-Kho league. Ultimate Kho Kho is promoted by Chairman of Dabur India, Amit Burman in collaboration with the Kho Kho Federation of India, and will be played from August 14 to September 4 at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune.

A viewer-friendly revamped format is expected to bring about a transformation in how this indigenous sport is perceived in the country.

Ultimate Kho Kho 2022: Start Date, Teams, Schedule, Venue, Where to Watch, Live Streaming Info

Draft process:

A total of 240 registered players, from 28 states and union territories were part of the draft process. They were divided into four categories, A, B, C and D, according to their performances in international matches, the recent National Championships and evaluation conducted by the league.

It was Maharashtra's Mahesh Shinde, who became the first player to be picked in the historic players' draft. The 27-year-old defender was drafted by KLO Sports-owned Chennai Quick Guns.

Category A picks:

The 77-top players from Category A, offered Rs 5 lakh and the South Asian Games gold medallist Pratik Waikar, Andhra Pradesh's Pothireddy Sivareddy, Tamil Nadu's M Vignesh and Karantaka's Gowtham MK were among the 20 players who were handpicked by the franchises.

While Waikar and defender Gowtham were picked by Telugu Yoddhas and Odisha Juggernauts respectively as their first pick, Chennai Quick Guns added local boy Vignesh to their squad. The 26-year-old all-rounder and one of the best pole divers in the country, Sivareddy will represent the Gujarat side.

"Finally, the Ultimate Kho Kho drafts are over and it was a well-rounded draft which comprises players across the country. We are really happy and proud to see this first step in the progression of creating Ultimate Kho Kho as a mega league in the Indian sporting ecosystem. Now that the franchises will get to work with the players' camp and the coaching camp till August 1, our endeavour at Ultimate Kho Kho will be to market the game and make this league a grand success," Ultimate Kho Kho CEO Tenzing Niyogi at the end of players draft.

Teams:

Chennai Quick Guns

Gujarat Giants

Mumbai Khiladis

Odisha Juggernauts

Rajasthan Warriors

Telugu Yoddhas

Format:

A total of 34 matches will be played over the period of 21 days in the first season of the league. The knockout matches will be played in an exciting playoff format which will consist of qualifier and eliminator matches.

Full Squads

Chennai Quick Guns: Mahesh Shinde, Rajvardhan Patil, M Vignesh, Ramji Kashyap, Patta Narsaya, S Santhru, Sibin M, Amit Patil, Manoj Patil, Daasari Rao, V Kabilan, Madan, P Jai Prasath, P Anand Kumar, buchannagari Raju, Vijay Vegad, Sachin Gaur, Pritam Chougule, Balvir Singh, Katla Mohan, Venigopal S, Neelakantam Suresh, Jaswant Singh, Vignesh M

Telugu Yoddhas: Pratik Waikar, Rohan Shingade, Sudarshan, Arun S A, Arun Gunki, Deepak Madhav, Avdhut Patil, Prajwal KH, Prajval KH, Adarsh Mohite, Prasad Radye, Subramani Y, Anukul Sarkar, Gavara Venkatesh, Sadanand Meitei, P Hemachandran, Dhruv, Chanish C, Aditya Das, Rokeson Singh, Pitu Reddy and Bojjam Ranjith

Gujarat Giants: Ranjan Shetty, Pothreddy Shivareddy, Mareppa, Suyash Gargate, Sagar Potdar, T Jagannath Das, Rutishbhai Barde, Abhinandan Patil, Akshay Bhangare, Sagar Lengare, Monoj Sarkar, Dhiraj Bhave, S Kavin Raj, Vinayak Pokarde, Govind Bhat, Chinmoy Nandi, Shubham Jambhale, S Sarathkumar, Ajaykumar Mandra, Aniket Pote, Nilesh patil, Saleem Khan, Debendra Nath and Praful Bhange

Juggernauts Odisha: Gowtham MK, Dilip Khandavi, Vishal, Jagannatha Murmu, Aditya Kudale, Nilesh Jadhav, Suraj Lande, Dipesh More, Subhasis Santra, Mahesha P, Avinash Desai, Lipun Mukhi, Dinesh Naik S, Arjun Singh, Suresh Kumar, T Vinod Kumar, Shiv Kumar Sen, Milind Chavrekar, Manoj Ghotekar, Darshanapu Sathish, Gurjinder Singh, Swayam Satyaprakash and Mukesh Prajapat

Rajasthan Warriors: Abhijit Patil, Dilrajsingh Sengar, Sushant Hajare, Akshay Ganpule, Hrushikesh Murchavade, Sourabh Adavkar, Suresh Sawant, Majahar Jamadar, Mohammad Taseen, Shailesh Sankapal, Govind Yadav, SK Murtha Ali, Bharat Pradhan, Nikhil B, Yalla Satish, Jithin B, K Dhananjay Singh, Atla Reddy, Tapan Pal, Mahesh M, Biswajit Das, Ashwani Ranjan, Mukesh Maurya and Bhuvneshwar Sahu

Mumbai Khiladis: Milind Kurpe, Rohan Kore, Visag S, Shreejesh S, Vijay Hazare, Faizalkhan Pathan, Abhishek Pathrode, Gajanan Shengal, Durvesh Salunke, Rajesh Kumar, Rohit Verma, Avik Singha, Sribin KP, Saurav Kandpal, Abhishek MS, Bichu SS, Rajat Malik, Rahul Sawant, Harish Mohammad, Devendra Dagur, Gaurav, Srijin J and Ummer Rather

Where to watch:

With Sony Sports Network being the official broadcaster of the Ultimate Kho Kho Season 1, the exciting live action will be telecasted live in Hindi (SonyTEN 3), English (SonyTEN 1), Tamil and Telugu (SonyTEN 4) as well as on their OTT platform, SonyLIV. Two matches will be played during the league stage with the first match starting at 7:00 pm (IST).