Pro Kabaddi League: Bhaskaran banks on predecessor

“Kasi sir is such an experienced coach in the kabaddi circuit. I will work alongside him throughout the season. He still has a lot to offer for the main squad and I will definitely count on his experience,” said Bhaskaran.  

The Chennai-based outfit retained the trio of Ajay Thakur, Amit Hooda and local lad C Arun ahead of the sixth edition of the PKL. The appointment of Bhaskaran was officially announced only on Monday. 

Asked if he had been part of the process in selecting the retained members of the squad, the former U Mumba coach said, “I have been in constant touch with the team management, which also includes the team owners. It is impossible to decide on who we are going to retain (for PKL 6) in a single day.” 

Former coach Baskaran was a huge fan of promoting young local talents, which included the likes of Pradap, Prapanjan and Thivakaran.  

When queried if he will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, the Season 2 title-winning coach remarked, “It’s too early to decide the kind of strategy we will go with for the upcoming edi

tion. It has barely been a few days since we announced our retained players. We still have more than a month to go for the auction.” 

“We are planning to have a review meeting (ahead of the auction). We will assess all the players who are part of the pool, have a look at their performances and see the areas in which they are masters in. It all boils down to the squad combination. We still have 22 spots (maximum squad size is 25) to fill and we will also have to be cautious about our purse amount,” he added.  

Bhaskaran led U Mumba to title in PKL Season 2. Speaking about possibility of recreating the magic with a relatively-new franchise, the former national team coach reflected, “Unfortunately, we (U Mumba) couldn’t deliver our best in the last season. We had a good squad, but it was plagued with injuries. When I received a good offer from the (Tamil) Thalaivas, I decided to come on board.” 

“It’s been 25 years since I started my association with kabaddi. I have been part of the national team of as a coach for a few global events like the Asian Games and the SAF Games. I have shared the dressing room with some of the senior players in the league. I will try to incorporate all that I have learnt from those and help the team,” he added. 

When asked if he has any message to convey to the team’s fans, he said, “They (Thalaivas players) gave their heart out, but it didn’t reflect on the table last year. I am hopeful of coming up with better performances this time around and I request the fans to back us during our matches.”  

Tamil Thalaivas last week announced its retained players for Season 6 of the Pro Kabaddi League. Raider Ajay Thakur, defender Amit Hooda and local lad C Arun got the nod from the franchise, enabling them to don the yellow jersey for the second year in running. 

All players who featured in the previous season with the exception of New Young Players are eligible to be retained by their respective franchises. As per the prescribed retention rules, only two players who are part of the Category A bracket can be retained. All the players released by the teams will be a part of the auction pool. 

According to sources, it is learnt that the Thalaivas management had a tough time in choosing two Category A players as it had four to pick from. One area which has raised a few eyebrows among the Thalaivas fans has been the exclusion of raider Prapanjan, who played second fiddle to Thakur in PKL Season 5. 

It is understood that it was not an easy decision to leave him out of the retained players’ list but one that was made with a lot of careful deliberation. It is also believed that a number of factors like position, pace, performance, pride and passion were taken into consideration before selecting the retained players. The franchise felt the retained trio gave them a strong foundation to build on for the future.