India bids for world arm wrestling championship as Pro Panja rises

With Pro Panja League gaining massive traction, India is bidding to host the World Arm Wrestling Championship, while its co-founder Parvinn Dabass eyes Olympic inclusion by 2036 for the growing sport

HYDERABAD: The runner-up position in the first Pro Panja League season by Kirak Hyderabad, owned by Mr Gautam Reddy of NedSportz LLP (he also owns Telugu Titans in PKL), may not have grabbed the attention it deserved!

But the growing popularity of the sport, thanks to the professional manner in which the first PPL was conducted, has now encouraged India to bid to host the next edition of the World Arm Wrestling Championship.

---

For the record, the second edition of the PPL starts from August 5, and some novelties will be unveiled, which should only make the sport even more popular.

“It is always a huge challenge not just to live up to the expectations of the fans, players and the franchisees, but also to come up with something new to give a new dimension to the sport,” says Parvinn Dabass, co-founder of PPL, who is in the city, in a chat with Telangana Today.

“The whole objective of the PPL is to give identity to the players, make them believe that they also have a platform to have a tryst with stardom,” he said.

“Not many may be aware that arm wrestling crossed one billion views on social media, and many of the players have millions of followers already,” Parvinn said.

“Yes, a lot of teams handling different subjects are putting their heart and soul into conducting the league successfully and professionally too. For instance, the talent-scouting team spans across India during the State and National-level tournaments. Very soon, Hyderabad will host an international event too,” he revealed.

“In a way, organising the PPL is uplifting the whole community of arm wrestlers across India as we deem it a completely egalitarian sport, where the players need not have an athletic body,” Parvinn explained.

“Importantly, this is a sport for all ages and across gender, immensely popular in mohallas too. Recently, for a promotional event in Mizoram, about 20,000 witnessed it,” he added.

“Both men and women players are paid the same fees in the PPL based on their national rankings,” Parvinn said. “For instance, the highest-ranked player gets ₹1 lakh for the 17-day league and is paid separately for the tournaments,” he said.

“A 45-member Indian squad will take part in the forthcoming World Arm Wrestling Championship in Bulgaria, and I would like to remind that India stood second in the Asian Arm Wrestling Championship, which is a very creditable achievement by itself,” Parvinn said.

“We are extremely grateful to the Sony TV network for promoting the sport in such a big way. Yes, we keep innovating based on the feedback from the broadcasters and the players. For instance, the second season will have the Challenge Round reduced to seven seconds from the previous edition’s 10 seconds to make it even more spectator-friendly,” he said.

Future targets? “Olympics. Not many take this seriously. Since there is a search for more spectator-friendly sports in the Olympics and given the fact that arm wrestling is already an integral part of Youth Asian Games and World Police Games, we are targeting 2036 by which we hope the sport will be introduced in the Olympics,” signed off a confident Parvinn.