# Tamil Thalaivas

Tamil Thalaivas is an Indian professional kabaddi franchise based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The team competes in the Pro Kabaddi League and was added as one of the four additional franchises when the league was expanded in 2017. The team plays its home matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai and is owned by Magnum Sports.
The franchise has qualified for the play-offs only once in the 2022 season. The team is currently captained by Sagar Rathee and is coached by J. Udayakumar.

## Background

The Pro Kabaddi League was conceived as a franchise-based kabaddi tournament, based on the success of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament. Its first season was held in 2014 with eight teams. In March 2017, the league announced the addition of four more team for the upcoming fifth season, one of which was based in Tamil Nadu. Kabaddi is the state game of Tamil Nadu. The team is owned by Magnum sports.

## History
### Early years (2017–20)

The franchise was named as "Tamil Thalaivas", ahead of the start of the fifth season. In the auction for the 2017 season, Thalaivas picked up then India national kabaddi team captain Ajay Thakur for ₹6.93 million (US$80,000) and defender Amit Hooda for ₹6.3 million (US$73,000). The teams were divided into two zones with the Thalaivas placed in zone B and each team played 15 intra-zonal matches and 7 inter-zonal matches. The team registered their first win against the Bengaluru Bulls on 10 August. The team finished bottom of the table with six wins from 22 matches and failed to advance to the play-offs.
The team retained four players including Ajay Thakur and Amit Hooda ahead of the auction for the 2018-19 season. The franchise also bought Sukesh Hegde, Darshan and Manjeet Chillar in the auction. E Bhaskaran replaced Kasinatha Baskaran as the head coach. The team had another disappointing season and finished bottom of zone B with just five wins. Following the poor season, coach Bhaskaran stepped down and was replaced by J. Udayakumar.
Ahead of the 2019 season, Thalaivas retained three players including Ajay Thakur and Manjeet Chhillar. In the auction, the franchise bought Rahul Chaudhari for ₹9.4 million (US$110,000) and seven other players. Despite the presence of star raiders in Thakur and Chaudhari, the team won only four matches and finished bottom of the table with 37 points.

### Moving up the table and first play-offs (2021-2023)

The next season was delayed till December 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic. In the auction, the Thalaivas picked up raiders Manjeet, Prapanjan and defender Surjeet Singh for a combined ₹23.8 million (US$270,000). However, the team had another poor season and finished 11th amongst the 12 teams with five wins and 47 points.
Ahead of the 2022 season, the team bought Indian captain and top raider Pawan Sehrawat for ₹26 million (US$300,000). However, Sehrawat had an ACL injury in the first match and was ruled out of the entire season. The team won only one match in the first six matches, which led to the sacking of the head coach Udayakumar and Ashan Kumar was appointed as the new coach of the team. The team had a revival in form and finished with ten wins from 22 matches. With a fifth place finish, the team qualified for the play-offs for the first time. The team won the first eliminator against the UP Yoddha in extra time before losing to eventual champions Puneri Paltan in the semifinals by a score of 37-39.
The team released Sehrawat before the auctions but retained most of the other players. The franchise bought only four players at the auction before the 2023-24 season. The team score nine wins but failed to advance to the playoffs after finishing in ninth place. The highlight of the season was the 74-37 win over the Bengal Warriors on 18 February 2024. Multiple records were broken in the match including the most points scored (111) in a single match and the most number of all-outs (6).

### Later years (2024-present)

Ahead of the 2024 season, Ashan Kumar was replaced by J. Udhayakumar as the head coach and Dharmaraj Cheralathan was appointed as the strategy coach. The team retained core players from the previous season and bought Sachin Tanwar for ₹21.5 million (US$250,000) in the auction. Sagar Rathee was retained as the captain of the team.

## Ground

The Thalaivas play their home matches at the Jawaharalal Nehru indoor stadium in Chennai. The stadium is owned by the Government of Tamil Nadu and has a capacity of 8000.

## Sponsors

| Season | Kit manufacturer | Main sponsor | Back sponsor | Sleeve sponsor |
| 2017 | Admiral | Muthoot | Maha Cement | Agni Devices |
| 2018 | Admiral | Orbit Cables | Valvoline | Asian Paints |
| 2019 | Kaizen Sports | Celon Labs | — | — |
| 2021-22 | Trak-Only | Parimatch News | Iodex | Nippon Paint |
| 2022 | Trak-Only | DafaNews | Kajaria | Nippon Paint |
| 2023-24 | Trak-Only | 1xBat | Kick-EV | Nippon Paint |
| 2024 | Shiv-Naresh | 1xBat | MyMaster11 | Freemans |

## Players
### Current squad

Tamil Thalaivas squad :
| No. | Name | Nationality | Position |
| 13 | Sagar Rathee (captain) | India | Defender - Right Corner |
| | Sachin Tanwar | India | Raider |
| 8 | Narender Kandola | India | Raider |
| | Vishal Chahal | India | Raider |
| | Ramkumar Mayandi | India | Raider |
| | Nitin Singh | India | Raider |
| | Sourabh Fagare | India | Raider |
| | Dhiraj Balimare | India | Raider |
| 66 | Chandran Ranjith | India | Raider |
| | Masanamuthu Lakshmanan | India | Raider |
| 7 | Abishek Manokaran | India | Defender - Right Cover |
| 9 | Himanshu | India | All-rounder |
| | Aashish | India | Defender - Left Cover |
| 10 | Mohit | India | Defender - Left Cover |
| | Sahil Gulia | India | Defender - Left Corner |
| | Amirhossein Bastami | Iran | Defender |
| | Ronak | India | Defender - Right Cover |
| | Nitesh Kumar | India | Defender - Left Corner |
| | Anuj Gawade | India | Defender - Left Cover |
| | Moein Safaghi | Iran | Defender |

## Administration

Updated: 1 October 2024
* Shushen Vashishth, CEO
* J. Udayakumar, Head coach
* Dharmaraj Cheralathan, Strategy coach

### Head coaches

| Name | Nationality | From | To |
| K. Baskaran | India | 2017 | 2018 |
| E. Baskaran | India | 2018 | 2019 |
| J. Udayakumar | India | 2021 | 2022 |
| Ashan Kumar | India | 2022 | 2024 |
| J. Udayakumar | India | 2024 | Current |

## Records

Updated:1 October 2024
| Seasons | Total | Wins | Tied | Losses | % Win | Position |
| Season 5 | 22 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 27.27% | 6 |
| Season 6 | 22 | 5 | 4 | 13 | 22.72% | 6 |
| Season 7 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 15 | 18.18% | 12 |
| Season 8 | 22 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 22.72% | 11 |
| Season 9 | 22 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 45.45% | 5 |
| Season 10 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 13 | 40.90% | 9 |

### By opposition

Updated:1 October 2024
| Opposition | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | % Win |
| Bengal Warriors | 13 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 15.38% |
| Bengaluru Bulls | 14 | 3 | 11 | 0 | 21.42% |
| Dabang Delhi | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 22.22% |
| Gujarat Fortune Giants | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 33.33% |
| Haryana Steelers | 11 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 18.18% |
| Jaipur Pink Panthers | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 22.22% |
| Patna Pirates | 14 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 28.57% |
| Puneri Paltan | 10 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 30.0% |
| Telugu Titans | 14 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 57.14% |
| U Mumba | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 20.0% |
| UP Yoddha | 14 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 42.85% |
| Total | 127 | 37 | 71 | 19 | 29.13% |