Lucknow: Pickleball took a major step forward in Lucknow with the city’s first-ever franchise-based pickleball league, the Pickleball Premier League (PPL ’26), completing its official Player Auction at Hotel Clarks Avadh. Hosted by Playwell Sports Ventures, the high-energy event brought together franchise owners, mentors, athletes and sports enthusiasts for an afternoon of strategic bidding and team-building.
The auction began at 3 pm and saw 10 franchises select their squads from a pool of 100 players, including 20 national-level athletes who travelled from different parts of the country. With a cumulative auction purse of ₹10 lakh, franchise owners had to balance ambition, strategy and budgets while competing for some of the tournament’s strongest talent. The event was also streamed live on YouTube, allowing pickleball enthusiasts across India to follow the bidding and team selections in real time.
The inaugural PPL ’26 will be held from October 2 to 4 at Aviyaan Resort on IIM Road. The league will feature a tournament prize purse of ₹10 lakh, giving players and franchises another incentive to deliver competitive performances.
The auction marked an important milestone for founders Adheesh Mohan, Anshul Garg and Pranav Aggarwal, who said the overwhelming response demonstrated the sport’s growing popularity.
“We started PPL with a simple belief—that pickleball has the potential to become much more than a recreational sport. We wanted to build a platform that gives players a bigger stage, creates meaningful earning opportunities and brings the energy of professional sport to Lucknow,” the founders said.
They added that the league aims to strengthen Lucknow’s sporting ecosystem by creating opportunities for players, coaches, businesses and the wider community while putting the city firmly on India’s pickleball map.
One of the distinctive features of PPL ’26 is its diverse franchise ownership. Rather than being dominated by traditional sporting figures, the teams have attracted entrepreneurs and business leaders from automobiles, hospitality, manufacturing, healthcare, food, beverages, marketing, entertainment and logistics.
Among the franchise owners are Sonjoy Singh, founder of Buttercup Bungalow, and Harshit Bajaj, director of PR Wheels, a dealership associated with Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai.
The hospitality sector is represented by Shawez Sheikh Mohammad, managing director of Arif Industries Private Limited, along with his sons Ibrahim Arif and Rayyan Arif, associated with Metro City and Arif Castle Hotel. Sumit Wadhwa of Hi-Tech Builders, with interests including Comfort Inn and Lineage, and Ashish Kandhari, with ties to MPFC Cold Chain, also bring business and hospitality experience to the league.
Manufacturing and consumer businesses feature through Luv Khatri, director of Nirmal Shakti Millers and founder of Project Fresh and Karara Jeera, along with Dr Amrita Khatri, an ophthalmologist.
The automobile and entertainment sectors include Raghav Gupta and Divas Gupta, directors of Motor & General Sales Pvt Ltd, associated with Honda and Tata Motors, and linked with Novelty Cinema. Piyush Agarwal, director of SRM Motors Pvt Ltd, associated with Tata Motors, is also part of the ownership group.
Food, education and lifestyle businesses are represented by Devanshi Das, Vice President of BBD Group and Director of ADG School; Sarthak Rastogi and Gandharv Chawla, founders of Kokkam and LTR Restaurants; while Ayiral Jain, director and global marketing head at Microlit, brings experience from the technology and marketing space.
The wider ownership group also includes farmer and entrepreneur Mahipat Shahi, Dr Arun Pandey of LEDTC Clinic, Sunny Gupta, director of USTPL, Rahul Aggarwal, a road-construction industry entrepreneur, and Siddharth Ladhani, director of SLMG Beverages.
With their diverse experience in branding, customer engagement, enterprise building and business development, the owners are expected to bring a different commercial dimension to professional pickleball.
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