Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar is among the new owners of the four new VIVO Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) teams that will participate in the fifth season of the tournament, to be played from July to October.

Sachin will team up with serial entrepreneur N. Prasad as the co-owner of the Tamil Nadu-based franchise while the JSW Group, Adani Group and GMR Group are the three other owners of the Haryana, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh teams.

The yet-to-be named new franchises would operate under Iquest Enterprises Pvt Ltd (Consortium) for Tamil Nadu, Adani Wilmar Ltd for Gujarat, GMR League Games Pvt Ltd for Uttar Pradesh and JSW Sports Pvt Ltd for Haryana.

Welcoming the four new additions to the PKL, Star India Chairman and CEO Uday Shankar, said: "I am delighted to welcome some of India's finest corporates to our Mission Kabaddi."

"We believe that with the support of existing and new partners we are well on our course to realizing a socially transformative sports agenda. The interest shown by these corporates is evidence of the immense potential of Kabaddi," he added.

This expansion adds to an already impressive line-up of eight franchises based out of major metros in the country -- Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Patna, Pune and Jaipur.