Author: Madhammer

The Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) is India’s premier professional kabaddi competition and the second most-watched sports league in India after the IPL. Season 13 is next up on the calendar, expected to run through the winter 2026-27 window. This is an editorial guide to the league – the 12 franchises, the format, the venues and how to follow it – with no tips, odds or predictions.

Important: as of writing, exact Season 13 dates and the full schedule are still to be confirmed by Mashal Sports. Everything below is either historically consistent or clearly flagged as tentative; always confirm on the official ProKabaddi.com schedule.

Key facts at a glance

The 12 franchises

The Pro Kabaddi League is contested by twelve city-based franchises spanning India:

• Bengal Warriors
• Bengaluru Bulls
• Dabang Delhi K.C. (defending champions)
• Gujarat Giants
• Haryana Steelers
• Jaipur Pink Panthers
• Patna Pirates
• Puneri Paltan
• Tamil Thalaivas
• Telugu Titans
• U Mumba
• UP Yoddhas

Recent champions

Eight different franchises have won the league since it began in 2014, which speaks to how open the competition is. The most decorated is Patna Pirates with three consecutive titles (2016 I, 2016 II, 2017). Recent winners:

How the format works

The Pro Kabaddi League has traditionally used a caravan-style scheduling model, with the league travelling to different host cities across the country. Each franchise plays every other team home and away during the league phase, meaning a full round-robin of matches. The top teams then advance to the playoffs, which combine eliminators, semi-finals and a single-match final to decide the champion. The exact playoff structure has evolved over the years; the current season’s format is confirmed on the official ProKabaddi.com site.

A quick refresher on scoring for anyone following the sport for the first time: teams earn raid points (a raider touching defenders and getting back safely across the midline) and tackle points (defenders successfully stopping the raider). Bonus points and “all-outs” (when an entire side is eliminated) add up quickly, which is why kabaddi totals can swing sharply in a single passage of play.

Records worth knowing

Over the league’s history, two players’ records stand out:

• Pardeep Narwal – most career raid points (1,801), by a wide margin. Widely regarded as the league’s greatest raider.
• Fazel Atrachali – most career tackle points (597). The Iranian defender’s consistency shaped how modern PKL sides think about their back three.

How to follow Pro Kabaddi in India

PKL matches are broadcast in India on Star Sports, the league’s television partner since the inaugural 2014 season, and streamed on the corresponding OTT service. Schedules, points tables and match centres are on ProKabaddi.com and the official app. Most fixtures kick off in the evening IST, which is exactly why the league became the country’s most-watched competition after the IPL – it slots into prime family viewing time.

If you follow kabaddi alongside other sports through a single account, our kabaddi coverage page explains how the season fits into the wider sports calendar. This guide itself is purely about following the tournament.

A bit of history

The Pro Kabaddi League premiered in 2014 with eight franchises, inspired by the popularity of kabaddi at the 2006 Asian Games. It expanded to twelve teams from Season 5 onward. In just over a decade the league has completely transformed the sport’s commercial standing in India – kabaddi went from a rural, largely amateur pastime to a prime-time, city-branded professional competition, second only to cricket in Indian TV viewership. The 2025 champions Dabang Delhi K.C. joined the small group of two-time winners; only Patna Pirates (3 titles) and Jaipur Pink Panthers (2) had done it before them.

Kabaddi’s rules, explained properly

Kabaddi is simple to enjoy and slightly more intricate than it first appears. If you are watching a full PKL season for the first time, these are the mechanics that matter.

• The raid. One player from the attacking side — the raider — crosses the midline into the opposition half, tries to touch one or more defenders, and must return across the midline to score. Each defender touched is a point and is sent off the mat.
• The tackle. The seven defenders try to stop the raider returning. A successful tackle scores one point for the defending side and sends the raider off.
• The bonus point. If enough defenders are on the mat, a raider who crosses the bonus line with the correct body position earns an extra point without needing a touch.
• The all-out. If a team loses all seven players, the opposition is awarded two extra points and the whole side is revived. All-outs are the single biggest swing in kabaddi.
• Do-or-die raids. If a team makes two empty raids in a row, the third must produce a point or the raider is out — a rule designed to prevent defensive time-wasting.
• Match length. Two halves of 20 minutes with a five-minute interval.

The all-out is what makes kabaddi such a volatile watch. A side can trail by six points, force an all-out, and lead within ninety seconds. It is also why match totals move so sharply and why momentum matters more than in most sports.

Positions and what to watch

Modern PKL teams are built around clearly defined roles, and knowing them makes the tactical side visible.

Watch how a defence sets its chain: strong corner-cover combinations can trap even elite raiders. Equally, a great raider forces defences into mistakes simply by threatening the bonus line. That cat-and-mouse between a lead raider and a settled back three is the tactical heart of a PKL match.

Why the PKL matters in Indian sport

The Pro Kabaddi League’s significance goes beyond viewing figures. Kabaddi was a village and school sport with deep roots across India but almost no professional infrastructure. The league created full-time contracts, structured coaching, physiotherapy and a transfer market where none existed — and it did so for athletes who, in many cases, came from small towns and rural districts rather than metropolitan academies.

The result is a competition that is genuinely national in a way few Indian leagues are, with franchises drawing on regional traditions from Haryana and Punjab to Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. That it now sits second only to the IPL in Indian sports viewership says as much about the sport’s cultural depth as about the league’s commercial execution.

Season structure and the auction

A Pro Kabaddi season has two distinct phases, and the first one shapes everything that follows.

• The auction. Ahead of each season, franchises build squads through a player auction under a salary cap, with retention rules allowing clubs to keep key players. The auction is followed closely in its own right — a marquee raider going for a record fee is national sports news.
• The league phase. All twelve franchises play each other home and away in a full round-robin, traditionally staged as a travelling caravan through host cities rather than every club hosting at its own venue every week.
• The playoffs. The top teams from the league table advance to eliminators and semi-finals, leading to a single-match final that decides the champion.

The caravan model is distinctive. Rather than a conventional home-and-away calendar, the league sets up in a host city for a block of matches, giving fans in that region a concentrated run of live kabaddi before moving on. It has been central to how the PKL built audiences in cities without a long professional-sport tradition.

The franchises and where they draw support

Haryana and Punjab have historically produced a disproportionate share of India’s elite kabaddi players, which gives the Haryana Steelers a particular resonance — a franchise rooted in the region where the sport’s competitive tradition runs deepest. Eight different clubs have won the title in twelve seasons, which for a twelve-team league is a genuinely open record.

Following a PKL season as a newcomer

Kabaddi rewards attention in a way that is easy to miss on a first viewing, because so much happens in a few seconds. A few pointers make a season far more enjoyable.

• Watch the raider’s feet, not the ball. There is no ball. The whole contest is a raider’s approach, feint and escape against a defence trying to time one tackle correctly.
• Count the defenders. The fewer players left on the mat, the more dangerous each raid becomes — and the closer the side is to an all-out.
• Track the do-or-die raids. Two empty raids in a row and the third is compulsory. Those moments produce a disproportionate share of a match’s turning points.
• Note the substitutions. Coaches rotate specialists in and out constantly, and a well-timed substitution before a do-or-die raid is a genuine tactical move.

A full PKL season runs for weeks with matches most nights, so it is worth picking a franchise to follow rather than trying to watch everything. Regional loyalty is the usual starting point, and it is a good one — kabaddi’s fanbases map closely onto where the sport is strongest.

The league’s place in Indian sport

Kabaddi’s professional era arrived quickly. Before 2014 there was no full-time domestic career in the sport; a decade later, the Pro Kabaddi League supports twelve franchises with professional coaching staff, sports science, an auction market and national television coverage. Athletes who would once have played at district level while working other jobs now have contracts, and the pathway from village and school competitions into the professional league is genuinely open.

The audience followed. Second only to the IPL in Indian sports viewership is a remarkable position for a sport that had no professional structure at all a dozen years ago, and it reflects something the league understood early: kabaddi did not need to be explained to Indian audiences. Most viewers already knew the rules from playing it at school. What was missing was a professional stage, and that is what the PKL built.

Looking beyond the domestic season? Our Kabaddi World Cup guide explains why there is more than one tournament by that name, and what India have actually won.

This is an editorial guide – schedule, teams and venues – and does not offer betting tips, odds or predictions. Readdy Anna Cricket is for adults 18 and over; please play responsibly and set your own limits. Online gaming laws in India changed under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and vary by state – check the rules where you live. Fixtures can change; always confirm against the official tournament schedule.

The UEFA Champions League is European football’s premier club competition and one of the most-followed tournaments in world sport. The 2026-27 edition continues the Swiss-model league phase introduced in 2024-25, with 36 clubs contesting a single league table before the knockout rounds. This is an editorial guide to the format, the schedule and how to follow it in India, with no tips, odds or predictions.

Key facts at a glance

How the Swiss-model format works

Since 2024-25, the Champions League has used a Swiss-model league phase instead of the old group stage. It works like this:

• 36 clubs enter a single league table.
• Each club plays 8 league-phase matches: 4 at home and 4 away, against 8 different opponents. Nobody plays the same club twice in this phase.
• The top 8 in the table qualify directly for the round of 16.
• Teams ranked 9th to 24th enter a two-legged knockout play-off round, from which 8 more sides advance to the round of 16.
• Teams ranked 25th to 36th are eliminated from all UEFA competition for the season – no drop to the Europa League.
• From the round of 16 onwards the competition is a familiar two-legged knockout, ending in a single-match Final at a pre-announced venue.

Format timeline

These are the standard windows the competition has settled into. The exact matchday dates for 2026-27 are on the official UEFA.com schedule.

Which clubs qualify

Qualification is based on each domestic league’s UEFA coefficient, so the top-ranked leagues receive the most direct entries. Broadly, the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 supply the bulk of clubs to the league phase, alongside qualifying rounds that give clubs from smaller leagues a route in. The two top-ranked leagues from the previous season’s UEFA performance also earn one additional “performance” slot each.

How to follow the Champions League in India

The Champions League has historically been broadcast in India by Sony Sports Network – confirm the current rights holder and channel numbers on the official UEFA.com listings and your service provider. Streaming is offered through the corresponding OTT service.

A practical note for Indian fans: European kick-offs mean most matches begin between 10:30 PM and 1:30 AM IST, so plan accordingly for live viewing. Live scores, standings and highlights are on UEFA.com and the official app. For how football fits alongside cricket and other sports through a single account, see our football coverage page.

A bit of history

The Champions League evolved from the European Cup, first contested in 1955-56. Real Madrid dominated the early years with five consecutive titles from 1956 to 1960 and remain the competition’s most successful club. The tournament was rebranded as the UEFA Champions League in 1992 and moved to the group-stage-and-knockouts format that defined it for three decades. In 2024-25 the competition adopted its current Swiss-model league phase – a genuine structural change – to make the group phase more compelling and to give more clubs meaningful matches against a wider variety of opponents.

A worked example of the Swiss model

The format change confuses a lot of people, so here is what it actually means for one club across a season. Imagine a team finishing the league phase in 11th place out of 36.

• They have played 8 matches — four at home, four away — against 8 different opponents. They never faced the same club twice.
• Because they finished outside the top 8, they do not go straight through. They enter the knockout play-off round in mid-February, a two-legged tie against a club ranked between 9th and 24th.
• Win that, and they reach the round of 16 in March, where they meet one of the top-8 sides who were resting.
• Had they finished 25th or lower, their European season would simply have ended — there is no consolation drop into the Europa League under the current format.

That last point is the sharpest change from the old system. Under the previous group stage, finishing third in a group of four sent you into the Europa League. Now, the bottom twelve are eliminated from European competition entirely. It has made the closing matchdays of the league phase far more consequential for mid-table clubs than the old dead-rubber group games ever were.

Why UEFA changed the format

The old 32-team group stage had a structural problem: by the fifth of six matchdays, a large share of groups were already decided, producing dead rubbers that nobody wanted to play or watch. Strong clubs drawn into easy groups coasted; smaller clubs drawn into hard ones were mathematically eliminated early.

The Swiss model addresses that in three ways. It adds four more clubs (36 instead of 32), giving more leagues access. It gives every club eight different opponents instead of three repeated ones, which spreads the marquee fixtures across the calendar rather than concentrating them. And by putting everyone in one table with a hard cut at 8th, 24th and 25th, it keeps almost every club playing for something into January. Whether it improved the competition is a matter of taste; that it reduced meaningless matches is fairly clear.

The most successful clubs

The European Cup and Champions League have been contested since 1955–56, and a handful of clubs dominate the record book.

• Real Madrid are the competition’s most successful club by a distance, including five consecutive titles between 1956 and 1960 in the tournament’s earliest years.
• AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Liverpool form the next tier of repeat winners.
• Barcelona, Ajax and Manchester United have each won it multiple times.
• Only a small number of clubs have ever retained the trophy in the modern format — a measure of how difficult back-to-back European titles have become.

How clubs qualify

Entry is driven by domestic league performance and by each association’s UEFA coefficient, which ranks leagues on their clubs’ European results over recent seasons. In practice that means:

• The top-ranked leagues — the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 — supply the largest share of the 36 clubs through direct qualification.
• The two best-performing associations from the previous European season each earn one extra place, awarded to the next-best domestic finisher.
• Clubs from lower-ranked leagues enter through multi-round qualifying played across July and August, with champions of smaller nations given a dedicated route.
• The defending champion qualifies automatically regardless of domestic finish.

Watching from India: the practical guide

Central European Time runs 3 hours 30 minutes behind IST (4 hours 30 minutes during European summer time, which ends in late October). Champions League matches use two standard kick-off slots:

So a typical Champions League night in India means an 11:15 PM match followed by a 1:30 AM match. Most Indian fans pick one. Matchdays cluster on Tuesdays and Wednesdays through the league phase, with the final traditionally on a Saturday evening in Europe — which lands late Saturday night into Sunday morning IST, comfortably the most watchable fixture of the whole competition.

The Champions League has historically been broadcast in India by Sony Sports Network; confirm the current rights holder and channels with your service provider. UEFA.com and the official app carry live scores, standings and highlights.

From European Cup to Champions League

The competition began in 1955–56 as the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, a straight knockout open only to national champions. That purity was also its limitation: a strong club could be eliminated in a single bad tie in September, and the biggest names often met too early or not at all.

The 1992 rebrand to the UEFA Champions League introduced a group stage and, gradually, access for clubs finishing below first in the stronger leagues — a commercially driven change that made the competition richer and more predictable at the top. The format then stayed broadly stable for three decades until the 2024–25 Swiss-model reform. Through all of it, the anthem, the ball and the final’s status as the biggest single match in club football have stayed constant, which is why it retains such a following in India despite the late kick-offs.

Matchday rhythm across the season

The Champions League calendar has a distinct shape, and knowing it helps you plan which weeks matter.

One detail worth flagging: the final league-phase matchday is played simultaneously across all fixtures. With a single 36-team table and hard cut-offs at 8th and 24th, that evening produces the kind of scoreboard-watching drama the old group stage rarely managed — clubs can swing between automatic qualification, the play-off round and elimination in the space of a few minutes.

What the two-legged ties actually mean

From the knockout play-off round through the semi-finals, ties are decided over two matches — one at each club’s ground. The aggregate score across both legs decides who advances.

• Away goals no longer apply. UEFA abolished the away-goals rule in 2021, so a tie level on aggregate after two legs goes to extra time and, if needed, penalties.
• The second leg is at the higher-seeded club in the play-off and round-of-16 stages, a genuine advantage earned by league-phase position.
• The Final is a single match at a neutral venue announced years in advance, which is why it carries a different weight from every other round.

For neutrals, the two-legged format is what makes the knockout stage compelling: a club can lose the first leg heavily and still turn it around at home, and some of the competition’s most famous nights have come from exactly that scenario.

Glossary: Champions League terms

A quick reference for terms that come up constantly in coverage.

One more piece of shorthand worth knowing: commentators often refer to a club being “in the play-off places” during the league phase. That means somewhere between 9th and 24th — alive, but facing two extra knockout matches in February that the top eight avoid entirely. Over a long season, that extra tie is a meaningful physical cost, which is why finishing in the top eight is worth so much more than it looks on the table.

This is an editorial guide – schedule, teams and venues – and does not offer betting tips, odds or predictions. Readdy Anna Cricket is for adults 18 and over; please play responsibly and set your own limits. Online gaming laws in India changed under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and vary by state – check the rules where you live. Fixtures and timings can change; always confirm against the official tournament schedule.

The Indian Super League (ISL) is the top tier of professional club football in India. The 2026-27 season is scheduled to run through the Indian football calendar with 14 clubs competing across a league phase and playoffs. This is an editorial guide to the season – the clubs, the format, the venues and how to follow it – with no tips, odds or predictions.

Important: the 2026-27 ISL season and its exact schedule remain subject to AIFF confirmation at the time of writing. Dates and fixtures below are indicative; always confirm on the official ISL schedule.

Key facts at a glance

How the ISL works

The ISL is played on a home-and-away basis – each club plays every other club twice, once at home and once away, during the league phase. The top teams then advance to the playoffs, with a two-legged semi-final structure leading to a single-match final that decides the league champion. Alongside the league title, other honours are typically contested during the season – confirm the current honours structure on the official ISL site.

India’s football calendar also runs alongside the ISL: several other competitions overlap with or feed into the top tier, so the ISL sits at the top of a wider system rather than in isolation.

The clubs

The ISL is contested by clubs from across India. The 2026-27 lineup is subject to AIFF confirmation; historically the league has included well-known names such as Mumbai City FC, ATK Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru FC, FC Goa, Kerala Blasters FC, Chennaiyin FC, Odisha FC, NorthEast United FC, Jamshedpur FC, Hyderabad FC, East Bengal, and Punjab FC among others. The exact 2026-27 participants and any new additions are confirmed by the AIFF ahead of the season.

Where matches are played

ISL matches are staged at each club’s home ground across India, from the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata and the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar to Fatorda in Goa, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi, the Kanteerava in Bengaluru and other regional venues. Home-and-away travel makes it one of the most geographically spread top-flight leagues in Asia.

How to follow the ISL in India

The ISL is broadcast and streamed in India through the league’s official broadcast partners; the exact channels and streaming apps for a given season are listed on the official ISL site. Most fixtures are scheduled to suit IST evening viewing, which is what makes the league so followable for fans watching from home. Kick-off times and channel details are published on the official schedule as fixtures are confirmed.

If you follow football alongside other sports through a single account, see our football coverage page for how the season fits into a wider sports calendar. This guide itself is purely about following the tournament.

A bit of history

The Indian Super League was founded in 2013 and began play in 2014, initially in a short, franchise-style October-to-December format designed to popularise professional football in India. Over the years it grew into a full-length top-flight league, absorbed the pre-existing I-League as the country’s top tier, and became the recognised premier competition in Indian club football. It has helped establish city-based clubs with growing fan bases across the country, and increasingly features Indian internationals alongside overseas players.

Understanding Indian football’s structure

The ISL sits at the top of a wider system, and knowing how the pieces fit makes the season easier to follow.

• Indian Super League — the top tier, contested by city-based franchise clubs.
• I-League — historically India’s national league and now positioned below the ISL in the pyramid, with its own promotion pathway.
• Super Cup — a knockout cup competition bringing together clubs from both tiers.
• Durand Cup — Asia’s oldest football tournament, played as a pre-season competition that many ISL clubs enter.
• AFC competitions — qualifying ISL clubs enter continental club competition, giving the league an international dimension.

For a fan, that means the ISL is the centrepiece rather than the whole picture. Clubs may be competing in a cup or continental campaign alongside the league, which affects squad rotation and fixture congestion — something worth remembering when a strong side fields an unfamiliar eleven.

How a season unfolds

An ISL campaign follows a rhythm that is now familiar to Indian fans.

The league phase is a full double round-robin, so every club plays every other twice — once at home and once away. That structure rewards consistency over a long season rather than a hot run of form, though the playoff format means the league’s best team over seven months does not automatically lift the trophy.

What makes the ISL distinctive

Two things set the ISL apart from most top-flight leagues. The first is geography: clubs are spread from Kerala to the north-east, from Goa to Kolkata, which makes travel a genuine competitive factor and gives the league unusually diverse home atmospheres. The Kerala Blasters’ support in Kochi and the Kolkata clubs’ historic rivalries produce crowds that compare with far older leagues.

The second is squad composition. ISL squads mix Indian internationals with overseas players under roster rules designed to develop domestic talent while raising the standard of play. That balance has been central to the league’s stated purpose since its launch: to build a professional structure that also feeds the national team.

Following the ISL from India

This is the one competition on our tournament coverage where timing is simple — the ISL is played in India, so kick-offs are scheduled for Indian prime time, typically in the evening IST. There is no time-zone maths and no late-night viewing required, which is a large part of why the league built a broadcast audience so quickly.

Fixtures, tables and match centres are on the official ISL website and app. Broadcast and streaming partners are listed there for each season; confirm current arrangements ahead of the campaign, since media rights in Indian football have changed hands more than once.

Clubs and their home grounds

The ISL’s clubs are spread the length and breadth of the country, and their home venues are a large part of each club’s identity. The 2026-27 participant list is confirmed by the AIFF ahead of the season; the league has historically featured the following clubs and grounds.

Club participation and home venues can change between seasons; confirm the current lineup on the official ISL site.

A few of these grounds carry real weight. The Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata is among the largest football venues in the world by capacity and hosts the Kolkata derby — a fixture with more than a century of history behind it, predating the ISL by generations. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi regularly produces the league’s loudest atmosphere, with Kerala Blasters supporters filling it in yellow. And Fatorda in Goa sits in the state with the deepest club-football culture in India.

The Kolkata derby and other rivalries

If you are new to Indian football, the rivalries are the fastest way in. The Kolkata derby between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal is the headline — a fixture dating to 1921 that predates independence and carries genuine social and historical weight, now played within the ISL structure. It routinely draws the league’s largest crowds and its most charged atmosphere.

Beyond Kolkata, the Kerala Blasters command probably the largest single fanbase in the league, and any match in Kochi feels like an event. Goa’s clubs bring a technical, possession-oriented tradition that reflects the state’s long footballing history. Those regional identities are exactly what the ISL set out to build on, and they are the reason the league feels different from a franchise competition assembled purely from scratch.

Indian football before the ISL

To understand why the ISL was created, it helps to know what came before. India has one of the oldest football cultures in Asia — the Durand Cup, first played in 1888, is the third-oldest football tournament in the world, and clubs like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal have histories stretching back over a century with fierce, deeply rooted support in Kolkata.

But that history never translated into a strong national professional structure. The National Football League, and later the I-League, struggled with inconsistent finances, limited broadcast reach and clubs concentrated in a few regions. Talented players had few full-time professional options, and the national team’s international standing did not reflect the size of the country’s fanbase.

The ISL was launched in 2014 to change that: city-based franchises, a compressed and heavily marketed season, significant broadcast investment, and overseas players brought in to raise both standards and visibility. It was explicitly modelled on what the IPL had achieved for cricket, and it was controversial — particularly among supporters of the older clubs, who saw a new competition being placed above a league with far deeper history.

How the two leagues came together

The tension resolved over time. Several of the historic clubs — including the Kolkata giants — moved into the ISL, bringing their support and their rivalries with them. The ISL was recognised as India’s top tier, with the I-League positioned below it and a pathway between the two. The result is a structure that combines the commercial reach of the franchise model with the century-old rivalries that give Indian football its emotional weight.

That combination is why an ISL season feels different from a purely invented competition. The Kolkata derby inside the ISL is the same fixture that has been played since 1921. The Kerala Blasters’ support was built in a state with a long football tradition, not manufactured from scratch. The league added professional infrastructure to passion that already existed.

Following a club through the season

If you are picking a club to follow for the first time, a few practical pointers:

• Geography helps. Following a club from your own region gives you local coverage, easier match access and a natural rivalry or two.
• Check the fixture list early. The double round-robin means you will see every other club twice, so you can plan around the fixtures that matter most.
• Watch the transfer and pre-season window. Squad turnover between seasons can be significant, and pre-season tournaments give an early read on form.
• Follow the playoff race, not just the table. Because the champion is decided in the playoffs, the scramble for a top-four finish in the closing weeks is often more dramatic than the race for first place.

This is an editorial guide – schedule, teams and venues – and does not offer betting tips, odds or predictions. Readdy Anna Cricket is for adults 18 and over; please play responsibly and set your own limits. Online gaming laws in India changed under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and vary by state – check the rules where you live. Fixtures and timings can change; always confirm against the official tournament schedule.

The 2026 US Open is the 146th edition of tennis’s oldest continuously held Grand Slam, and the fourth and final major of the year. It runs across late August through early September 2026 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York. This is an editorial guide – the venue, the format, the defending champions and how to follow it in India – with no tips, odds or predictions, just the facts you need.

Tournament status: the 2026 US Open runs from late August to the finals on 12 and 13 September at Flushing Meadows. This guide covers the format, the venue and how to follow it from India rather than live scores.

Key facts at a glance

The venue: Flushing Meadows

The US Open has been held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center since 1978. The complex has 22 outdoor courts, with four “show courts”: Arthur Ashe Stadium (the main court, 23,771 seats, retractable roof added in 2016), Louis Armstrong Stadium (14,061 seats, with a retractable roof of its own), the 8,125-seat Grandstand, and Court 17, nicknamed “The Pit” because the playing surface is sunk 8 feet into the ground. All courts are illuminated, which is what allows the tournament’s famous night sessions.

The complex was renamed after Billie Jean King in 2006 – a four-time US Open singles champion and one of the sport’s most important pioneers.

Format

The US Open runs the standard Grand Slam programme:

• Men’s singles – 128-player main draw, best-of-five sets throughout.
• Women’s singles – 128-player main draw, best-of-three sets.
• Men’s and women’s doubles – 64-team draws.
• Mixed doubles – 16-team draw, plus junior, senior and wheelchair events.
• Tiebreakers – since 2022, if the deciding set reaches 6-6, an extended tiebreak is played (first to ten points, win by two).

Since 2025 the tournament has started on a Sunday rather than the traditional Monday, making Wimbledon the only remaining major to begin on a Monday. Since 2018, US Open matches use a 25-second shot clock between points, and since 2021 all line calls are made electronically by Hawk-Eye Live.

Defending champions

Carlos Alcaraz won the 2025 men’s singles final, defeating Jannik Sinner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Aryna Sabalenka won the women’s singles, beating Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-6(3). In doubles, Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos took the men’s title; Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe won the women’s; and Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori took the mixed.

Prize money

The US Open is the richest tennis tournament in the world. The 2025 prize pool was a record US$90 million, with the singles champions receiving US$5 million each. The 2026 figures are typically announced in the weeks before the tournament.

How to follow the US Open in India

The US Open is broadcast in India on Star Sports, per the tournament’s international listings, with confirmation and channel details published closer to the start. Live scores, draws and streaming details are available on the official USOpen.org and USTA.com sites.

One practical note for fans in India: US Open matches are played in New York time. Day sessions typically start around late evening IST and night sessions run through to early morning, so plan accordingly if you want to catch specific matches live. For a broader picture of the tennis calendar and the four majors, see our tennis coverage page.

A bit of history

The US Open began in 1881 as the U.S. National Championships, played on grass at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island. It moved to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, in 1915, and to its current Flushing Meadows home in 1978. It is the only Grand Slam that has been played every year since its inception – it was not cancelled by either World War, and it was the first major to award equal prize money to men and women (1973) and to introduce a tiebreaker to decide sets (1970).

Record holders: on the men’s side, Richard Sears, William Larned and Bill Tilden share the amateur-era record of seven singles titles; in the Open Era, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer have five each. On the women’s side, Molla Mallory holds the all-time record with eight singles titles; Chris Evert and Serena Williams share the Open-Era record of six.

The show courts, one by one

Flushing Meadows is the largest venue in professional tennis, and knowing the courts helps you understand the tournament’s rhythm. The complex has 22 outdoor courts in total, of which four are designated show courts.

Every court at the US Open is floodlit, which is what makes the tournament’s night sessions possible — and those night sessions on Arthur Ashe are, for many players, the loudest and most intimidating environment in the sport. The venue was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2006, honouring a four-time US Open singles champion who did as much as anyone to build the professional women’s game.

What makes the US Open different from the other three majors

Each Grand Slam has its own character, and the differences are more than cosmetic.

The US Open’s hardcourt is generally rated medium-fast, which rewards big serving and aggressive baseline play more than the slower clay of Roland-Garros. Combine that with the humid late-summer New York conditions, the night sessions and the famously vocal crowd, and you get the major most likely to produce upsets and marathon matches. It has also been the sport’s most consistent innovator: first to use a tiebreaker (1970), first to award equal prize money to men and women (1973), first to adopt instant replay (2006), first with a shot clock (2018), and the second to move to fully electronic line calling (2021).

Records worth knowing

The US Open is the oldest of the four majors and its record book stretches back to 1881.

• Most men’s singles titles: Richard Sears, William Larned and Bill Tilden share the all-time record with seven each, all in the amateur era. In the Open Era, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer have five apiece.
• Most women’s singles titles: Molla Mallory holds the all-time record with eight. Chris Evert and Serena Williams share the Open Era record with six each.
• Most consecutive men’s titles: Roger Federer won five in a row from 2004 to 2008 — the Open Era record.
• Youngest champions: Pete Sampras at 19 years and 1 month (1990); Tracy Austin at 16 years and 8 months (1979).
• Notable unseeded winners: Andre Agassi in 1994, and Emma Raducanu in 2021 — still the only qualifier ever to win a major title.

Following the US Open from India

New York runs 9 hours 30 minutes behind IST during the tournament, which makes the US Open the most demanding major for Indian viewers. Here is roughly how the sessions translate:

The practical read: day sessions land in Indian prime time, which is genuinely convenient, while the marquee night-session matches on Arthur Ashe run into the early hours in India. If you only want to watch a handful of matches live, the day sessions are the sensible choice, and the finals weekend is worth planning around. The US Open is listed on Star Sports for the Indian subcontinent per the tournament’s international broadcast schedule; confirm current listings closer to the event. USOpen.org carries live scores, draws and radio coverage.

How the tournament grew

The US Open began in August 1881 at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island, then a men’s-only event on grass. The first women’s national singles championship followed in 1887 at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. In 1915 the championships moved to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, after a contentious vote among players — 128 in favour, 119 against — that argued New York was where the sport’s audience actually was.

The tournament stayed at Forest Hills until 1978, briefly switching from grass to clay in 1975 before moving to the newly built National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows and to hardcourts. Jimmy Connors remains the only player to have won US Open singles titles on all three surfaces. The event has been played every single year since 1881 — uninterrupted by either World War or by the 2020 pandemic, when it was staged without spectators.

Attendance has grown sharply in recent years: the 2025 tournament drew a record 1,144,562 spectators, having passed a million for the first time in 2024. Prize money has followed the same curve, reaching a record US$90 million in 2025 with US$5 million to each singles champion — the largest purse in tennis.

The road to the title: how the draw works

A Grand Slam draw is a 128-player bracket, which means the champion wins seven matches across two weeks. Understanding the structure makes the tournament far easier to follow.

The top 32 players are seeded, which spreads the strongest names across the bracket so they cannot meet before the third round. Beyond the main draw there is a 128-player qualifying event, from which 16 players earn places in the main draw. Emma Raducanu’s 2021 title, won from qualifying, remains the only time anyone has come through that route to win a major.

Ranking points follow the same ladder: 2,000 to the singles champion, 1,300 to the runner-up, and so on down to 10 points for a first-round loss. Those points are a big part of why players target the majors above almost everything else — a single deep run at a Slam can be worth more than an entire season of smaller tournaments.

What to watch for at Flushing Meadows

A few things reliably shape the tournament, and they are worth knowing before the first ball is struck.

• The conditions. Late-summer New York is hot and humid in the first week, often cooling noticeably by the second. Players who handle heat and long rallies tend to survive the opening rounds.
• The night sessions. Arthur Ashe under lights is a genuinely different tournament — louder, later, and historically kinder to players who feed off atmosphere.
• The roof. Since 2016, rain no longer stops play on the main court, which ended the run of five consecutive Monday men’s finals between 2008 and 2012.
• The surface speed. Laykold is rated medium-fast, rewarding first-strike tennis and big serving more than the slower European clay season that precedes it.

Want all four majors in one place? Our Grand Slam calendar covers dates, surfaces and IST timings for the whole season.

This is an editorial guide – schedule, teams and venues – and does not offer betting tips, odds or predictions. Readdy Anna Cricket is for adults 18 and over; please play responsibly and set your own limits. Online gaming laws in India changed under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and vary by state – check the rules where you live. Fixtures and timings can change; always confirm against the official tournament schedule.

The Big Bash League returns for its sixteenth season — BBL|16 — running from 12 December 2026 to 26 January 2027. For Indian cricket fans there is a genuinely historic twist this year: the tournament opens not in Australia but in Chennai. This is an editorial guide to the season — the dates, the eight teams, the venues and how the format works — with no tips, odds or predictions, just the facts you need to follow it.

The big story: the BBL opens in India

For the first time in its history, a Big Bash League match will be played outside Australia. The season opener — Melbourne Renegades against Perth Scorchers — will be staged at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on 12 December 2026. Cricket Australia confirmed the fixture as part of a wider cricketing collaboration between Australia and India aimed at growing the league’s audience here. Whatever else happens this season, an Australian franchise league launching in Chennai is a landmark moment for fans in India.

Key dates at a glance

How the BBL works

The Big Bash is a Twenty20 competition contested by eight teams. Across the group stage each side plays ten matches — 44 games in all — before the top four advance to a short playoff series. The playoffs use a Qualifier, Knockout and Challenger route into the Final, which rewards finishing high in the table with a second chance. Perth Scorchers are the defending champions, having won a record-extending sixth title last season.

The eight teams

Venues

Beyond the Chennai opener, BBL|16 is played across Australia’s major grounds. Expect matches at:

• M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai (opening match)
• Melbourne Cricket Ground and Junction Oval, Melbourne
• Sydney Cricket Ground and Sydney Showground Stadium, Sydney
• Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
• The Gabba, Brisbane
• Perth Stadium, Perth
• Bellerive Oval, Hobart, and York Park, Launceston
• Manuka Oval, Canberra

The finals explained

The top four teams from the group stage enter the playoffs. The first- and second-placed sides meet in the Qualifier (19 January), with the winner going straight to the Final. The third and fourth teams meet in the Knockout (20 January); its winner faces the Qualifier’s loser in the Challenger (23 January). The two survivors contest the Final on 26 January 2027 — Australia Day. It is a structure that gives the best league-stage teams a safety net rather than a single sudden-death game.

The full BBL|16 league-stage fixture list

Forty league matches run from the Chennai opener on 12 December through to 17 January, before the finals series. Here is the complete schedule so you can plan which nights matter. All dates are local Australian dates; in India, most matches begin in the afternoon or evening IST (more on timings below).

The dates that matter most

A few fixtures stand out even in a packed calendar. The Chennai opener on 12 December is the obvious one — a genuine first in the league’s history. Christmas Eve cricket returns on 24 December with Melbourne Renegades hosting Hobart Hurricanes, a tradition Cricket Australia has deliberately brought back. Boxing Day delivers a double-header on 26 December, and New Year’s Eve sees Adelaide Strikers host Melbourne Stars at the Adelaide Oval.

The derbies are worth circling too. The Melbourne derby (Renegades v Stars) and the Sydney derby (Thunder v Sixers) each occur twice in the league phase and reliably draw the biggest home crowds. If you are picking a handful of nights to watch properly rather than following all 40 matches, the derbies plus the holiday fixtures are where the atmosphere peaks.

Watching the BBL from India

Australian Eastern Daylight Time runs 4 hours 30 minutes ahead of IST during the BBL window (Perth, on Australian Western Standard Time, is 2 hours 30 minutes ahead). That works out unusually well for Indian viewers compared with most overseas cricket.

In other words, most BBL matches land in the early-to-mid afternoon in India — a rare overseas league you can watch without staying up all night. The Chennai opener is the exception and the treat: played on Indian soil, it starts in Indian prime time. Check current broadcast and streaming listings for India ahead of the season, since rights arrangements can change year to year.

How the eight teams line up

With squads contracted ahead of the season, several names will be familiar to Indian audiences from international cricket and franchise leagues around the world.

• Perth Scorchers — the defending champions and the most successful franchise in BBL history, arriving with a record-extending sixth title. Squad includes Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Agar and Jhye Richardson.
• Sydney Sixers — consistently among the strongest, with Steve Smith, Sean Abbott and Josh Philippe.
• Sydney Thunder — featuring David Warner, Sam Konstas and Daniel Sams.
• Melbourne Stars — captained by Marcus Stoinis, with Glenn Maxwell and Peter Siddle.
• Melbourne Renegades — the side that opens the season in Chennai; includes Jake Fraser-McGurk and Will Sutherland.
• Hobart Hurricanes — captained by Nathan Ellis, with Tim David, Matthew Wade and Beau Webster.
• Adelaide Strikers — led by Matt Short, with Alex Carey and Lloyd Pope.
• Brisbane Heat — featuring Matt Renshaw, Spencer Johnson and Matthew Kuhnemann.

Squads are as contracted ahead of the season and can change through the tournament with injuries, international call-ups and replacement signings.

Why the Chennai match is a genuine milestone

It is easy to read a single overseas fixture as a gimmick. This one is not. In sixteen seasons the Big Bash League has never played a match outside Australia, and Cricket Australia has framed the Chennai game as part of a wider sporting collaboration between the two countries aimed at deepening cricketing ties and expanding the league’s audience in India.

The choice of venue matters as well. The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium is one of Indian cricket’s most storied grounds, with a crowd that knows T20 cricket intimately. For the Renegades and the Scorchers it means opening a domestic Australian season in front of a full Indian house — a very different atmosphere from a mid-December night in Melbourne. Whether it becomes a recurring feature or stays a one-off, it is the kind of fixture that gets remembered.

A short history of the Big Bash

The Big Bash League launched in 2011–12, replacing the older state-based KFC Twenty20 Big Bash with eight new city-based franchises. The model was deliberately borrowed from what the IPL had proved a few years earlier: shorter formats, city identities, family-friendly scheduling and a summer holiday window.

It worked. The BBL became a fixture of the Australian summer, drawing large free-to-air television audiences and building genuine local followings — the Melbourne and Sydney derbies in particular. Over sixteen seasons the competition has produced a mix of dominant runs and genuine surprises, with Perth Scorchers accumulating a record six titles while other clubs have taken turns at the top. For Indian audiences it has become one of the reliable ways to keep watching high-quality T20 cricket through the months when the domestic calendar is quieter.

Two things that changed before a ball was bowled

BBL|16 arrives with two structural changes worth knowing before the season starts, and both are firsts.

The Renegades have left Marvel Stadium. In July 2026 the club confirmed it was ending a fifteen-year association with the Docklands ground and moving to the Melbourne Cricket Ground as its primary home venue. That puts both Melbourne clubs at the same stadium, which changes the character of the Melbourne derby considerably — it is no longer a fixture with a genuine home and away leg in different buildings.

And the league is leaving Australia. The Chennai fixture is the first BBL match ever staged overseas in sixteen seasons. Taken together, the club that opens the season abroad is also the club that changed home grounds at home — an unusually eventful off-season for one franchise.

Where the Chennai match is being shown

Cricket Australia has confirmed the broadcast arrangements for the Chennai opener, which is the fixture most Indian readers will actually want to watch.

For the rest of the season, check current listings before each match rather than assuming — overseas rights for Australian domestic cricket change from season to season, and the arrangement for a one-off match played in India is not necessarily the arrangement for the other thirty-nine.

At the time of writing tickets for the Chennai match had not yet gone on sale. Cricket Australia has said they will be released “shortly” and is running a registration list for on-sale alerts. If you are planning to attend, register rather than wait for a general announcement — a first-ever overseas BBL fixture at Chepauk is unlikely to be a slow seller.

The champions they are chasing

Perth Scorchers arrive as defending champions, and the manner of the BBL|15 title is worth recording.

It was a controlled chase rather than a close finish, with Josh Inglis unbeaten at the end and the target reached with overs to spare. Six titles in fifteen seasons is a level of sustained success no other BBL club has come close to, and it is the main reason the Scorchers are the benchmark every other side is measured against.

They also happen to be the opposition for the Chennai opener, which means Indian crowds get the reigning champions in the league’s first overseas fixture.

The women’s competition comes first: WBBL 2026-27 runs from 29 October to 5 December, and the Caribbean Premier League 2026 fills the August and September window before it.

This is an editorial guide to the tournament — schedule, teams and venues — and does not offer betting tips, odds or predictions. Readdy Anna Cricket is for adults 18 and over; please play responsibly and set your own limits. Online gaming laws in India changed under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and vary by state — check the rules where you live. Fixtures and timings can change; always confirm against the official BBL schedule.