Manchester Raiders: team in British Kabaddi League bidding for glory as competition’s second season starts

The British Kabaddi League is back for another season of hard-hitting action - and the Manchester Raiders are hoping for success as they once again represent the city-region in the competition.

The Oldham-based side made a real splash in last year’s inaugural competition, emerging at the front of the pack in the first stage of the season only to be pipped in the semi finals by the eventual champions the Birmingham Bulls.

The British Kabaddi League (BKL) is the most high-profile competition the ancient sport created in India has ever had in this country and it is hoped this year’s second season will increase its profile further with new teams entering and the BBC cameras once again capturing the action.

As the new season gets under way the Raiders say they have a revenge mission against the Bulls on their mind as well as getting to the final stage - but are expecting the competition to be much tougher than last year.

Who are the Manchester Raiders and what is the British Kabaddi League?

The Manchester Raiders are Greater Manchester’s representatives in the BKL, formed by Moinul Islam and based in Oldham for their training. Moinul has been working to spread the word about kabaddi in Britain for years and also co-runs social enterprise Outta Skool which has been going since 2005.

The second season of the BKL sees 10 teams take part. The Raiders and their conquerors the Birmingham Bulls are returning for a second campaign as well as last year’s beaten finalists the Glasgow Unicorns, the Wolverhampton Wolfpack, the Walsall Hunters, the Leicester Warriors and the Edinburgh Eagles. Three new teams, the Harrow Heroes, the Luton Bengal Tigers and the Nottingham Royals, are also joining the fray this time around.

The season is made up of four weekend-long Grand Prix competitions. It starts over the Easter weekend in Wolverhampton (8 and 9 April) before going to Walsall (29 and 30 April) and (20 and 21 May). The BKL final weekend when the champion is crowned is in Glasgow on 27 and 28 May.

The BKL was formed last year by English and Scottish Kabaddi, with support from the West Midlands Growth Company and its Business and Tourism Programme (BATP), The idea was to capitalise on the momentum of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and to increase the popularity of kabaddi among British people in general and the country’s British Asian community in particular.

As was the case last season you will once again be able to tune into the BBC and watch the action unfold.

Kabaddi is a contact sport in which individual players act as raiders and seek to score points by taking it in turns to enter opposition territory, tag members of the other team and then return to their own half of the indoor court without being tackled to the ground. If the defensive team manage to tackle the raider, they score instead. There are also bonus points on offer if defences manage to restrict the opposition to back-to-back scoreless raids and if raiders manage to succesfully tag the entire opposing team out of the game.

What have the Manchester Raiders said about the new British Kabaddi League season?

Last year’s inaugural BKL season saw teams with notably different levels of experience coming together to compete, which meant that there were some high scores and fairly one-sided matches in the early rounds of the campaign. Moinul is expecting the sides to be much more closely matched this time around now that most of the teams have a year of kabaddi at this level under their belt.

The season ultimately came to a frustrating end for the Raiders as their first defeat of the campaign came in the crucial knock-out match against Birmingham in the semi final.

Looking to improve on the third-place finish from the inaugural season, the side has set a minimum goal of being among the final four teams in Glasgow battling for the silverware at the end of May. And they are looking to set the record straight when they meet the Birmingham Bulls once again on the court.

Moinul said: “This year will be tougher than last year. Everyone has had a whole year to prepare and all the teams have been training and practising. They’ve had a whole year of playing together and that teamwork should come through with games that are more interesting and a competition that is a lot closer.

“Last year we set the standard and the only match we lost in the entire tournament was the knock-out semi-final. We became the favourites and the commentators enjoyed seeing our matches because of the showmanship of our players, who were doing backflips and somersaults and enjoying themselves playing to the cameras.

“We perhaps got a bit too confident and it was just a few silly mistakes we made. We had the conversation in the changing room straight after the match, I said it was all about getting to play on TV for the first time and enjoying the game and we had really done that.

“Our target is to get in the top four and make it to Glasgow. Hopefully we can make it to the final. Our other target is definitely to beat Birmingham Bulls.”

What has been said about the new BKL season?

Prem Singh, CEO of British Kabaddi,, said: “As we embark on a second exciting year of kabaddi action in the UK, it fills me with pride at how the league has grown over 12 months, with new teams joining the league, and a new Kabaddi Grand Prix tournament in Walsall.

“Last year’s inaugural tournament was an enormous success, and a great platform to build on as we expand the league. With the ongoing support of the West Midlands Growth Company, we very much look forward to our 10 teams battling it out to become champions.”

In further exciting news for kabaddi fans in this country it has been announced that the UK will host the sport’s World Cup in 2025, giving British supporters the chance to see the very best players from across the globe battling it out for glory.