Ultimate Kho Kho
Indian franchise-based Kho-Kho league
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| Most recent season or competition: 2023–24 Ultimate Kho Kho | |
| Sport | Kho Kho |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2022 |
| First season | 2022 |
| CEO | Tenzing Niyogi |
| No. of teams | 6 |
| Country | |
Most recent champion | Gujarat Giants (2023–24) |
| Most titles | Odisha Juggernauts Gujarat Giants (1 each) |
| Website | Website |
Ultimate Kho Kho, abbreviated as UKK is an Indian franchise-based kho-kho league.[1] Hosted by the Kho Kho Federation of India, it was founded in 2022.[2] The first season had a viewership of 64 million, 41 million of which came from India, making UKK the third-most viewed non-cricket sports tournament in India after the Pro Kabaddi League and the Indian Super League.[2]
History
Several changes were made to the standard rules of kho-kho in UKK in order to make the game more exciting and presentable on television.[3] Sony Pictures Network India signed a 5-year deal to broadcast UKK, and will invest ₹200 crore (US$21 million) into the league over the 5 years.[4]
There are plans to launch a women's version of UKK in a few years' time.[5][6] Future editions of UKK will expand to have eight to ten teams (potentially including a team from Northeast India),[7][8] with venues in multiple cities to be used.[9] It was confirmed that for Season 3, some foreign players will participate.[10]
Before the start of the second season, UKK became the first Indian sports league to secure private equity-based funding, receiving it from a UK-based group.[11]
Format
UKK uses a modified set of rules referred to by the International Kho Kho Federation as the "fast format", as opposed to the standard "test format".[12] The following modifications apply:[13][14][15]
- Only 7 players from the attacking (chasing) team are on the field.[16][17][18]
- The playing field is only 22 meters long and 16 meters wide.[a][16][17][18]
- 2 points are scored per tag.[19]
- A 30-second break is taken between the dismissal of one batch and the entry of the next batch.[b][20]
- If a batch of defenders can avoid being completely dismissed for at least 3 minutes (known as a "Dream Run"), they earn 1 point, and then an extra point for every 30 seconds survived afterwards.[21][22]
- One attacking player (known as the wazir) may run in any direction when acting as the active attacker.[13][14][15]
- The attacking team can take a powerplay in each of their attacking turns during which they have two wazirs. Each powerplay lasts until all 3 defenders of the current batch are out.[16][17][18]
- Each team's turn to score/defend lasts 7 minutes, with the break time between turns also shortened.[13][14][15]
- Tiebreaker (named "Minimum Chase"): Each team gets one additional turn to score (with the powerplay being active), and the team that scores its first point the fastest wins.[20]
The game is split into two innings, each of which is split into two turns of seven minutes each. An interval of 3 minutes is taken after the end of the first inning, while a break of 2 minutes is taken after the end of the first and third turns respectively.[20]
Teams
| Team[23] | City | Debut | Head Coach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chennai Quick Guns | Chennai | 2022 | |
| Gujarat Giants | Ahmedabad | 2022 | |
| Mumbai Khiladis | Mumbai | 2022 | |
| Odisha Juggernauts | Bhubaneswar | 2022 | |
| Rajasthan Warriors | Jaipur | 2022 | |
| Telugu Yoddhas | Hyderabad | 2022 |
Editions and results
| Season | Final | Teams | Player of the Season | Ref | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Scoreline | Runner-up | Venue | ||||
| 2022 | Odisha Juggernauts | 46–45 | Telugu Yoddhas | Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Pune | 6 | Ramji Kashyap | [24] |
| 2023–24 | Gujarat Giants | 31–26 | Chennai Quick Guns | Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Cuttack | Ramji Kashyap | [25] | |
Team performance
Awards
| Season | Player of the Tournament | Rising Star of the Tournament[c] | Attacker of the Tournament | Defender of the Tournament | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Ramji Kashyap of Chennai Quick Guns | Madan of Chennai Quick Guns | Abhinandan Patil of Gujarat Giants | Deepak Madhav of Telugu Yoddhas | [24] |
| 2023–24 | Shubham Thorat of Gujarat Giants | Pratik Waikar of Telugu Yoddhas | Aditya Ganpule of Telugu Yoddhas | [25] |