After Successful PHL, India Gets Women’s Handball League; Set To Commence From January 2025

New Delhi: After a successful inaugural men’s Premier Handball League (PHL), the Handball Association of India in support of South Asian Handball Federation and Asian Handball Federation has come up with the women’s tournament, the organizers announced on Tuesday. The six-team league, which will entirely take place in India, will feature prominent players from the Middle East, South East, Europe, and Africa. The league is set to commence tentatively on January 2025, the venues of which are yet to be finalised.

Women’s handball has been on the rise in India. In the Asian Games 2023, the Indian women’s handball secured the fifth position. They also won the prestigious Asian Presidents Cup title for the first time in Jordan last year while the junior team made history by winning gold at the Asian Junior Girls Championship and qualified for the World Championship last year.

The league promises to be a game-changer for women’s handball in India as it will be providing the players a platform to showcase their talent, skills and most importantly exposure. The inclusion of players from around the globe will enhance the league’s diversity and competitiveness, promising to create a spectacle of best-in-class Handball action for sports fans across the country.

“We are proud to be part of this historic moment as we launch India’s first Women’s Handball League. This league is a significant step forward in our mission to promote and develop women’s handball across the country,” Anandeshwar Pandey, League Chairman of the HAI and Secretary General of SAHF told media.

“Our aim is to elevate the standard of women’s handball in India and provide our athletes with a world-class platform to compete at the highest level. This league marks the beginning of a new era for women’s handball as well as women’s sports for our country,” he added.

The organizers have also decided to invest Rs 100-plus crores over the next three years in the sport to focus on infrastructure development, talent identification, and creating of top-notch coaching facilities for the game at grassroots level. They have also plans to integrate foreign exchange programs as a crucial part of its grassroots development initiatives with the international federations to provide a holistic development platform for players that will provide them with the necessary exposure and experience to make their name in the sport both nationally as well as globally.

What is Handball? How it is played?

One of the fastest-growing Olympic sports, a handball match consists of two teams with each side consisting of seven players. As the game suggests, handball is played with the players passing the ball using their hands, aiming to throw it into the opposing team’s goal. A standard match is divided into two periods of 30 minutes each, and the team with more goals at the end of the match emerges as the winner.