KBD Juniors 2023: All you need to know about the tournament and matches happening during PKL 2023
KBD Juniors is an initiative launched for school children, organized by Star Sports. It was introduced ahead of the fifth PKL season and garnered an incredible response from thousands of schools across the country.
KBD Juniors 2023 will be the fourth edition of the competition, with the first-ever edition played in 2017. The second and third editions were played in 2018 and 2019.
Due to undisclosed reasons, the tournament was discontinued from 2020-2022. Nevertheless, the KBD Juniors made a grand return in 2023.
KBD Juniors aim
KBD Juniors aims to cultivate a younger audience base by providing them with a unique experience of playing in the same stadium as the Pro Kabaddi stars, with a smaller mat laid over the existing one. The initiative is aimed at expanding and popularising the sport across the country.
KBD Juniors Format
Teams are drawn from the schools in each of the Indian cities that have a PKL team.
A total of eight teams will take part in the quarter-finals of each city leg finals. Four teams will later progress to the semifinals and two successful sides will progress to the final.
One winner will be declared from each city and the winners of each city will move to the national finals.
KBD Juniors Schedule
December 5, 2023
Ahmedabad City Leg Finals (Udgam School for Children defeated Divyapath Science School by 41-7 in the final)
December 12, 2023
Bangalore City Leg Finals (DPS International Bangalore East defeated Indus Intl Community School by 27-26 in the final)
December 19, 2023
Pune City Leg Finals (Aaryans World School defeated SSP Military School by 19-16 in the final)
December 26, 2023
Chennai City Leg Finals (Evaans School defeated Nellai Nadar School by 27-16 in the final)
January 2, 2024
Noida City Leg Finals (Oxford Green Peepalka defeated Junior High School by 35-8 in the final)
January 9, 2024
Mumbai City Leg Finals
January 16, 2024
Jaipur City Leg Finals
January 23, 2024
Hyderabad City Leg Finals
January 30, 2024
Patna City Leg Finals
February 6, 2024
Delhi City Leg Finals
February 13, 2024
Kolkata City Leg Finals
February 20, 2024
Panchkula City Leg Finals
KBD Juniors History
Sonepat’s South Point World School defeated Jeppiaar School 34–31 in the final of 2017.
Sri Adishakti Higher Primary School from Bengaluru defeated Delhi Public School 38–18 in the final of 2018.
Mount Litera Zee School from Patna defeated Mother Khazani Public School from Delhi 42–32 in the final of 2019.
KBD Juniors Live Streaming and Broadcast Details
Star Sports will broadcast each city leg final every Tuesday. The same will be live-streamed on Disney+Hotstar.