Pro-Kabaddi League : Tamil Thalaivas retain J Udaya Kumar as head coach for 8th season

Pro Kabaddi League team Tamil Thalaivas has announced that J Udaya Kumar will continue as the head coach and will guide the squad in the eighth season of the Pro Kabaddi League. Udaya Kumar, who took over as coach from Edachery Bhaskaran halfway through the PKL 2019 season, has extended his contract with Thalaivas for another year.

Thalaivas have ended at the last spot in each of its first three seasons – 2017, 2018-19, and 2019. Udaya Kumar will have a good task ahead of him to bring success to the team in the forthcoming season. He will need to put up a strong squad during the PKL Season 8 auction.  Ajay Thakur, Manjeet Chhillar, Rahul Chaudhari, Mohit Chhillar, and Ran Singh were among the Thalaivas' major names that were released by the side ahead of PKL 8.

They did, however, retain youngsters Himanshu, M Abishek, and Sagar Rathee after their strong showing last season. Thalaivas are expected to be the busiest team in the PKL 8 auction as they have retained only three players and have several spots to fill.

Tamil Thalaivas announced the contract extension of Udaya Kumar before the commencement of the PKL 8 Auction on 29th August. They made it public with a tweet stating "New season, new hope. We welcome back J. Udayakumar as our head coach for the 2021 PKL Season."

Kumar has been among the greatest kabaddi coaches in India. He has previously guided the Indian national kabaddi team to victories in the 2004 and 2007 World Cups while also coaching them to three Asian Games gold medals in 2002, 2006, and 2014. He has also coached UP Yoddha and Bengaluru Bulls previously in the PKL and his experience will be very crucial for the Thalaivas this time to turn the tables around and lay their hand on the PKL trophy.

Only Four out of nearly a hundred NYP’s find teams for the 8th edition of PKL

Day 1 of the PKL season 8 auction commenced on 29th August in Mumbai which saw nearly a hundred New Young Players (NYP’s) being drafted in front of the teams. The first day of the auction was expected to be a huge one but instead, it turned out to be tame as only four players were able to find teams.

Puneri Paltan picked Govind Gurjar and Mohit Goyal, while Telugu Titans and UP Yoddha picked Prince and Nitin Panwar respectively.

Image credits: @Prokabaddi Twitter