Ultimate Kho Kho

Indian franchise-based Kho-Kho league

Ultimate Kho KhoMost 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|  India
Most recent
champion(s)| Gujarat Giants
(2023–24)
Most titles| Odisha Juggernauts
Gujarat Giants
(1 each)
Official website| Website
2023–24 Ultimate Kho Kho
Seasons

* 2022
* 2023–24

Ultimate Kho Kho (UKK or UKKL)[1] is an Indian franchise-based kho-kho league.[2] Hosted by the Kho Kho Federation of India, it was founded in 2022.[3] 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.[3]

## History

[edit]

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.[4] Sony Pictures Network India signed a 5-year deal to broadcast UKK, and will invest ₹200 crore (US$24 million) into the league over the 5 years.[5]

There are plans to launch a women's version of UKK in a few years' time.[6][7] Future editions of UKK will expand to have eight to ten teams (potentially including a team from Northeast India),[8][9] with venues in multiple cities to be used.[10] It was confirmed that for Season 3, some foreign players will participate.[11]

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.[12]

## Format

[edit]

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".[13] The following modifications apply:[14][15][16]

* Only 7 players from the attacking (chasing) team are on the field.[17][18][19]
* The playing field is only 22 meters long and 16 meters wide.[a][17][18][19]
* 2 points are scored per tag.[20]
* A 30-second break is taken between the dismissal of one batch and the entry of the next batch.[b][21]
* 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.[22][23]
* One attacking player (known as the wazir) may run in any direction when acting as the active attacker.[14][15][16]
* 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.[17][18][19]
* Each team's turn to score/defend lasts 7 minutes, with the break time between turns also shortened.[14][15][16]
* 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.[21]

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.[21]

## Teams

[edit]

Mumbai Khiladis

Rajasthan Warriors

Telugu Yoddhas

Gujarat Giants

Odisha Juggernauts

Chennai Quick Guns

class=notpageimage|

Locations of the UKK teams

Team[24] | 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 |  | 2022 |

## Editions and results

[edit]

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 | [25]
2023–24 | Gujarat Giants | 31–26 | Chennai Quick Guns | Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Cuttack | Ramji Kashyap | [26]

## Team performance

[edit]

### By season

[edit]

Team  | CQG | GG | MK | OJ | RW | TY

|
|
|
|
|
|

2022 | 4th  | 3rd  | 5th  | C | 6th  | RU
2023–24 | RU | C | 5th  | 3rd  | 6th  | 4th

### League stage positions

[edit]

Year  | 1st  | 2nd  | 3rd  | 4th  | 5th  | 6th

|
|
|
|
|
|

2022 | GG | OJ | TY | CQG | MK | PW
2023–24 | CQG | OJ | GG | TY | MK | PW

## Awards

[edit]

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 | [25]
2023–24 | Shubham Thorat of Gujarat Giants | Pratik Waikar of Telugu Yoddhas | Aditya Ganpule of Telugu Yoddhas | [26]

## See also

[edit]

* Kho Kho World Cup
* Sport in India
* Pro Kabaddi League
* World Chase Tag

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "India To Host First-Ever Kho Kho World Cup: MS Tyagi Highlights The Sport's Growth". 14 November 2024. Archived from the original on 8 December 2024. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
2. ^ Laghate, Gaurav. "Ultimate Kho Kho franchises pick up 143 players from draft". The Economic Times. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
3. ^ a b Khosla, Varuni (17 January 2023). "Ultimate Kho Kho S1 claims total reach of 41 million viewers from India". mint. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
4. ^ "Ultimate Kho Kho — Welcome revival or departure from roots?". sportstar.thehindu.com. 17 September 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
5. ^ "Entering the big league, Amit Burman's Ultimate Kho Kho all set to launch this year". Moneycontrol. 15 March 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
6. ^ "Indigenous sport gets modern treatment as Kho Kho is the latest to try league format". The Indian Express. 15 August 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
7. ^ R, Gopalakrishnan (29 August 2022). ""Women's League in Pipeline": Ultimate Kho Kho CEO Tenzing Niyogi". sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
8. ^ "'Kho Kho has affection of masses, needs no promotion'". The Indian Express. 17 December 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
9. ^ Baparnash, Tridib (16 March 2023). "Making efforts to have a NE team in Ultimate Kho Kho: Mittal". EastMojo. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
10. ^ Bhardwaj, Rohit (8 September 2022). "After success of Ultimate Kho Kho Season 1, India's 'maati ka khel' on the trail of global recognition". NEWS9LIVE. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
11. ^ PTI (13 June 2025). "International players to feature in Ultimate Kho Kho Season 3 beginning on Nov 29". ThePrint. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
12. ^ "Ultimate Kho Kho becomes first Indian sports league to secure PE investment". Business Standard.
13. ^ "General 4". International Kho Kho Federation. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
14. ^ a b c "Ultimate Kho Kho: Shorter duration, more points for acrobatic tags among new rules for the league". Scroll.in. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
15. ^ a b c Understanding The Game Play - KHO-KHO, retrieved 15 July 2022
16. ^ a b c "Ultimate Kho Kho Rules | Update New rules of Kho Kho". KHO KHO. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
17. ^ a b c Chhabria, Vinay. "Scoring, fouls & more - All the rules of Kho Kho you need to know before Ultimate Kho Kho 2022". sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
18. ^ a b c "Ultimate Kho Kho: Squads, format, fixtures – all you need to know about latest Indian sports league". Scroll.in. 14 August 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
19. ^ a b c Sharma, Avinash (14 August 2022). "Ultimate Kho Kho 2022: Revamped format, changed mat dimensions, tickets; all you need to know". MyKhel. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
20. ^ Upadhyay, Maanas (24 January 2024). ""If I'm worried about whether he got two or three points, then I'll miss out on that"- UKK CEO Tenzing Niyogi divulges reason for scoring rule changes". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
21. ^ a b c "rules-season1.pdf". Google Docs. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
22. ^ "Ultimate Kho Kho revolutionises traditional sport: Expanding, innovating and inspiring". Sakshi Post. 24 December 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
23. ^ "Ultimate Kho Kho Season 2: All your FAQs answered". Ultimate Kho Kho. 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
24. ^ "Ultimate Kho Kho League: 143 Players Picked In Season One Draft | Other Sports News". NDTVSports.com. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
25. ^ a b "A Glance at the Season Award Winners of Ultimate Kho Kho Season 1". Ultimate Kho Kho. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
26. ^ a b "Meet the Kings of Ultimate Kho Kho Season 2". Ultimate Kho Kho. 19 January 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2024.

1. ^ Certain other dimensions of the playing field are changed as well. For example, the boxes which the sitting chasers squat in have been turned into 40cm squares.
2. ^ The attacking team can select any of its on-court players to be the active attacker at the start of the new batch. A kho does not need to be given by the attacker after the break.
3. ^ Known in Season 1 as the Young Player of the Tournament

* v
* t
* e

Ultimate Kho Kho

Seasons|

* 2022
* 2023-24

Finals|

* 2022
* 2023-24

Participating teams|

* Chennai Quick Guns
* Gujarat Giants
* Mumbai Khiladis
* Odisha Juggernauts
* Rajasthan Warriors
* Telugu Yoddhas

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Sports leagues and tournaments in India

National|

| Basketball|

* 3x3 Pro Basketball League
* Elite Pro Basketball League
* Indian National Basketball League
* UBA Pro Basketball League

|

Cricket|

| First class|

* Duleep Trophy
* Irani Trophy
* Senior Women's Inter Zonal Multi-Day Trophy
* Ranji Trophy

|

List A|

* Deodhar Trophy
* Senior Women's One Day Challenger Trophy
* Senior Women's One Day Trophy
* Vijay Hazare Trophy

Twenty20|

* Indian Cricket League†
* Indian Premier League
* Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy
* Senior Women's T20 Trophy
* Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy
* Women's T20 Challenge
* Women's Premier League

T10|

* Indian Street Premier League

Youth|

* CK Nayudu Trophy
* Cooch Behar Trophy
* Rohinton Baria Trophy
* Vinoo Mankad Trophy
* Vizzy Trophy

Field hockey|

* Hockey India League
* Premier Hockey League†
* World Series Hockey†

Football|

* Development League†
* Elite Football League†
* I-League
* I-League 2
* I-League 3
* Indian Super League
* Indian Women's League
* National Beach Soccer Championship‎
* National Football League†
* U-19
* Second Division
* Third Division
* Santosh Trophy
* Youth League†

Kabbadi|

* Pro Kabaddi League
* Real Kabaddi League
* Women's Kabaddi Challenge†
* Women's Kabaddi League

Motorsports|

* I1 Super Series^
* Indian Racing League
* Indian Supercross Racing League

Volleyball|

* Indian Volley League†
* Prime Volleyball League
* Pro Volleyball League

Others|

* Rugby Premier League
* Equestrian Premier League
* Futsal Club Championship
* Indian Athletics League^
* Indian Premier Handball League
* National Lawn Tennis Championships†
* Premier Badminton League
* Premier Futsal Championship
* Premier Handball League
* Pro Panja League
* Pro Wrestling League
* Super Boxing League
* Super Fight League
* Tennis Premier League
* Ultimate Kho Kho
* Ultimate Table Tennis
* Shooting League of India

Regional|

| Cricket|

* Andhra Premier League
* Bengal Pro T20 League
* Delhi Premier League T20
* Karnataka Premier League†
* KCA President's Cup T20†
* Madhya Pradesh League
* Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20
* Rajasthan Premier League
* Saurashtra Premier League
* Sher-E-Punjab T20 Cup
* Tamil Nadu Premier League

|

Football|

| North and Central|

* Chhattisgarh Football League Championship
* FD Senior Division
* FD Women's League
* Himachal Football League
* Jammu and Kashmir Premier Football League
* Lucknow Super Division
* Madhya Pradesh Premier League
* Punjab State Super Football League
* Punjab Women's League
* Uttarakhand Super League

|

East and Northeast|

* Indrajit Namchoom Arunachal League
* Assam State Premier League
* Bihar State Soccer League
* Manipur State League
* Manipur Women's League
* Meghalaya State League
* Mizoram Premier League
* Mizoram Women's League
* SSA Women's Football League
* Nagaland
* FAO League
* FAO Women's League
* Sikkim Premier Division League
* Calcutta Football League
* Calcutta Women's Football League

West|

* Goa Football League
* Goa Women's League
* Gujarat SFA Club Championship
* Mumbai Football League
* Pune Football League
* R-League A Division

South|

* Bangalore Football League‎
* Bangalore Super Division
* Chennai Football League
* Karnataka Women's League
* Kerala Premier League
* Kerala Women's League
* Malabar Premier League
* Super League Kerala
* Tamil Nadu Women's League

Others|

* Calcutta Hockey League
* Junior Badminton League
* Maharashtra Kusti Dangal

†Defunct; ^ Proposed
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