Premier Handball League: Format, squads, fixtures – what you need to know about new competition

A new sporting league is set to begin on Thursday in India, as the inaugural season of the Premier Handball League gets underway at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium in Jaipur.

Handball has been a constant at the Summer Olympics since the 1972 edition in Munich. It is an indoor sport consisting of seven starting players per team. In PHL, six franchises will be competing in the opening season which will be held in its entirety in Jaipur.

The PHL is sanctioned by the South Asian Handball Federation and affiliated with the Asian Handball Federation, the organisers informed. The six teams are – Delhi Panzers, Rajasthan Patriots, Garvit Gujarat, Golden Eagles Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra Ironmen and Telugu Talons.

Here’s what you need to know about the new league, including the format, live broadcast, and squads:

Tournament format

Six teams will be competing in a league stage where they play each opponent twice. Following the completion of the league stage, the top four teams then proceed to a semi-final stage. The winners of that go to the final.

The total of 33 matches (league and knockout rounds) will be conducted over a period of 18 days, starting from the opening matches on June 8 to the final on June 25.

The matches are of 60 minutes split into two halves of 30 minutes each – following the rules of the regular format played internationally and approved by the International Handball Federation.

You can read the tournament rules here.

Squads and owners

Here are the six teams that are competing in the inaugural edition.

Delhi Panzers
Owner: Vineet Bhandari (RASAV Sports LLP)
Players: Elumratov Sardor, Artem Martynov, Emil, Minnulin, Dinesh Kumar, Deepak Ahlawat, Arun Sharma, Mintu Sardar, Deepak Ghanghas, Nittin Kumar Sharma, Nandkishor Bhardwaj, Bhupender Ghanghas, Ashok Nain, Jasmeet Singh, Deepak, Rakesh Ahlawat, Mithun Sharma, Subir Roy.

Garvit Gujarat
Owner: Garvit Sports Private Limited
Players: Farhad Shafiei Alavijeh, Tuliboev Mukhtor, Atsawamethee Barameechuay, Amit Ghanghas, Mohammed Shujja Ur Rehman, Dinesh, Avin Khatkar, Karamjeet Singh, Tarun Thakur, Harender Singh Nain, Naveen Panghal, Sivaprasad Nair, Ravinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar, Mandeep Lochab, Aman Khiche, Sachin Singh.

Golden Eagles Uttar Pradesh
Owner: Pavna Group
Players: Omid Reza, Ziad Obeidat, Van Jacob Baccay, Harjinder Panjeta, Vikas Kumar, Bhushan Shinde, Sunil Ghanghas, Kamal Ghanghas, Sukhveer Singh Brar, Naveen Malik, Sahil Rana, Mankesh Poonia, Vansh Thakran, Sanchit Kumar Gupta, Gurpinder Singh, Aashish Kumar, Amit Sharma

Maharashtra Ironmen
Owner: Punit Balan Group
Players: Jalal Kiani, Alexander Lesnik, Jasim Mohammed, Manjeet Kumar, Ankit Kumar, Ranjeet Singh, Naveen Deshwal, Vijay Thakur, Mitul, Mohammed Sohail Akhtar, Mohit Punia, Sumit Ghanghas, Sunil Sharma, Sumit Kumar, Vishal Dabas, Shubham Sharma, Rajat Khatkar

Rajasthan Patriots
Owner: KRI Entertainment
Players: Artem Ulanov, Baderaladeen Naser, Thanawat Sanyamud, Atul Kumar, Arjun Lakra, Sumit, Sahil Malik, Robin Singh, Hardev Singh, Siddharth Bidhuri, Happy Singh, Thoufeeq VM, Sidharth Singh, Bhupender Jangra, Mohit Ghanghas, Ramesh Godara, Rohit Kumar

Telugu Talons
Owner: Abhishek Reddy (Kankanala Sports LLP)
Players: Andrei Igorevich Nedbailo, Iaroslav Alexandrovich Shabanov, Rey Joshua Tabuzo, Naseeb Singh, Anil Khudia, Shubham Sheoran, Kailash Patel, Rahul TK, Raghu Kumara, Mohit Kumar, Chirag Chandel, Vishal Hadia, Mohit Yadav, Davinder Bhullar, Ajay Moyal, Sombir, Rahul Nain

Where to watch

During the league phase, there will be two matches per day, the first starting at 7.00 pm followed by the second at 8.30 pm.

The two semi-finals will be held on June 24, at 7.00 pm and 8.30 pm, followed by the final on June 25 at 7.00 pm.

Viacom18 Network hold the broadcast and streaming rights for PHL. All matches will be broadcast on Sports 18 and Sports 18 Khel. The matches will also be streamed live on Jio Cinema and FanCode.