# Ultimate Kho Kho

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

## History

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. Sony Pictures Network India signed a 5-year deal to broadcast UKK, and will invest ₹200 crore (US$23 million) into the league over the 5 years.
There are plans to launch a women's version of UKK in a few years' time. Future editions of UKK will expand to have eight to ten teams (potentially including a team from Northeast India), with venues in multiple cities to be used, and some foreign players to be allowed to participate.
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.

## Rules

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

### Terminology

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.

## Teams

The six teams are named Chennai Quick Guns, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Khiladis, Odisha Juggernauts, Rajasthan Warriors, and Telugu Yoddhas.

## Editions and results

| Season | Final | Final | Final | Final | Teams | Player of the season | Ref |
| Season | Winner | Scoreline | Runner-up | Venue | Teams | Player of the season | Ref |
| 2022 | Odisha Juggernauts | 46–45 | Telugu Yoddhas | Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Pune | 6 | Ramji Kashyap | |
| 2023–24 | Gujarat Giants | 31–26 | Chennai Quick Guns | Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Cuttack | 6 | Ramji Kashyap | |

## Team performance

| Team | Titles | Runner-up | Playoffs | Seasons won | Seasons runner-up | Seasons played |
| Odisha Juggernauts | 1 | - | 2 | 2022 | - | 2 |
| Telugu Yoddhas | - | 1 | 2 | - | 2022 | 2 |
| Chennai Quick Guns | - | 1 | 2 | - | 2023-24 | 2 |
| Gujarat Giants | 1 | - | 2 | 2023-24 | - | 2 |
| Mumbai Khiladis | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| Rajasthan Warriors | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |

### League stage positions

| Team | Season | Season |
| Team | 2022 | 2023-24 |
| Gujarat Giants | 1st | 3rd |
| Odisha Juggernauts | 2nd | 2nd |
| Telugu Yoddhas | 3rd | 4th |
| Chennai Quick Guns | 4th | 1st |
| Mumbai Khiladis | 5th | 5th |
| Rajasthan Warriors | 6th | 6th |

## Awards

| Season | Player of the Tournament | Rising Star of the Tournament | 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 | |
| 2023–24 | Ramji Kashyap of Chennai Quick Guns | Shubham Thorat of Gujarat Giants | Pratik Waikar of Telugu Yoddhas | Aditya Ganpule of Telugu Yoddhas | |