A Closed-Room Call On A Piece Of Cardboard: Kabaddi's Real Transfer Market Is Running Behind The Curtain

I once saw four names written on a piece of cardboard in a closed room. No franchise letterhead, no agent's visiting card, just names in ballpoint pen with ages next to them. The man sitting in that room was not from a big TV panel but from a state unit — and he was deciding which raider would move to which roster after the season. That was when I understood — kabaddi's real transfer market is not built in the auction hall, but in rooms like this where no camera goes.

This was during the days when I was working as a stringer in the Haryana-Punjab belt and measuring mud on the ground at the same time. The public debate was the same then as it is now — "who will go for the most money this time", "which team retained smartly". What you see on TV on auction day is a dramatic moment. What you don't see is the three months before it — trials, fitness reports, a coach's recommendation at a village tournament, and above all, the money math.

In my 31-year career I have learned one thing: where the language of the contract changes, the language of the sport changes too. From the railway-clerk era to the crore-rupee auction, I have seen which player got converted into money and who stayed on the mud court. After 2026, when I made a video about a Patna raider's 369 raid points, I realised that numbers are not just for celebration — they are audit flags. In the same way, transfer market numbers are not just for discussion. They tell you why someone's price rose and someone else's quietly fell.

In this season's transfer window I am seeing one pattern clearly: teams are investing in defence before spending on superstar raiders. This is not my guess. Look at the tackle-point data of the last three seasons. Most teams that reached the playoffs had their winning margin in tackle efficiency, not raiding. A raider brings 15 points, but if the defence is leaking two points every raid, those 15 points are of no use. Franchises are now understanding this math. That is why I have to keep an eye on names that are not in the headlines — young defenders playing at state level whose tackle-point ratio is better than their raid-point ratio.

In that same room I saw something else that stung me the most. The official struck off one name and said, "His fitness report is not good, drop him." I asked who made the report, and the answer was — "It came from inside." In kabaddi, a fitness report is a weapon. It can bring a player's price down, push another's up, and it is hard to tell how much of it is medical and how much is strategy. I have seen many times in my career that an 'injured' player turns up fully fit the next season playing for another team. This is the biggest blind alley of the transfer market.

Now the part where I have to challenge myself. Maybe I am reading too much into this. Maybe the pattern of investing in defence is visible only because there are few good raiders this year and teams are buying defenders out of compulsion. If two or three young raiders emerge next season, the market's mood will swing again. Don't take my word as proof, take it as a hypothesis to be tested in the coming seasons.

My biggest worry is not money but access. When I sit in these closed rooms, I also have to remember who gave me this access. I have partnerships across five career stops, and it is true that sometimes I go soft on the people who invite me. So when I say spending on defence is right, also remember I did not say teams should abandon their favourite raiders. Balance matters, and I am not the scale for that balance.

What next? I think after this season we will see something new — players will now negotiate not just through franchises but also through state units. The player who understands that his value lies not only on the field but in his network will become the real player of the transfer market. The rest is just noise from the auction hall.

And yes, that piece of cardboard is still in my drawer. Whenever someone asks me how kabaddi's transfer market works, I show them that piece. Four names, four ages, and a small word written next to them — 'settled'. That is the real auction.