“It is time we gave ourselves a new sport to breathe for” – Rajiv Luthra on the Pro Kabaddi league

The Pro Kabaddi League, a professional kabaddi league kicked off on July 26, 2014 with eight franchises consisting of players from around the world. The league itself has been founded by Mashal Sports, driven by Anand Mahindra (Mahindra & Mahindra), Piyush Pandey (Ogilvy & Mather), Rajiv Luthra (Luthra & Luthra Law Offices) and Charu Sharma (the league’s Managing Director)..Luthra & Luthra acted as the sole legal advisor for the league..“Starting the kabaddi league was an idea which emerged during discussions with Charu Sharma, who I know from college days and Anand Mahindra, who I know for a long time. We wanted to do something for our country”, says Luthra..“Kabaddi is the only pure Indian International sport played in over 30 countries. But it has never attracted the kind of attention enjoyed by several other sports including cricket, hockey, badminton etc. So it is time that we give ourselves a new sport in the form a league to live on and breathe for. The other logic is that in the next ten years the growth is going to come from rural India as urban India is more or less getting saturated and kabaddi is a huge thing in rural India.”.Luthra who himself has played the sport during his school days also notes that even though it is early days, the kind of interest that has been generated is encouraging, and may well propel the game to the international level..When it comes to structuring the league, Luthra says that the firm has ensured that a proper governance mechanism has been put into place. The firm also devoted a significant amount of manpower to the league..The other team of lawyers include Gayatri Roy (Intellectual Property), Kanchan Sinha (General Agreements), Sanjeev Sachdeva and Tarun Govil (Tax), and Anshul Jain (Compliance and Structuring)..Nirupam Lodha along with Vivek Agarwal, Ashish Pareek, Mayank Aggarwal, Ankita Kansil and Neha Thakur advised and worked on the agreements with the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India, arrangements with the broadcaster Star Sports, as well as the agreements between the teams and the players.