A traditional Indian sport, with roots in the villages, is all set to enthrall the world, writes Amit Chaudhary
Earlier, he could only marvel at the grandness of the O2 Arena in london from the outside, but now kabaddi ace Talwinder Singh, one of the marquee players of the World Kabaddi league, is all set to exhibit his skills at the famous venue.
“It’s a really good feeling. I had never expected that such a thing would happen in kabaddi,” says Talwinder, who was part of India’s 2013 World Cup winning team.
He is both excited and nervous at the same time. “There are so many advertisements on TV,” 28-year-old Talwinder, who is also a part of the WKl TV promos, says. “I am a bit nervous because when I used to play in the UK, usually the audience were around 10,000 people, but now it will be broadcasted live to millions of people across the world,” he says to underline the scale of the league.
The arrival of the World Kabaddi league (WKl) is a sign that their humble, homegrown sport has now taken a big leap into the world of glamorous, money-loaded, widely watched leagues. Mud will be replaced by colourful mats. The matches will be played at big, world-class, air-conditioned arenas. There will be disco lights, fireworks, thumping music — much like the WWE. For the players, the days of anonymity will be over, soon.
“It will benefit players as well as the sport. In the World Cup, only 14-15 Indian players used to play. Now, through this league, around 70 Indian players would be playing,” says Gurmail Singh, a coach in the WKl. The organisers refused to reveal the name of the teams Gurmail would be coaching and Talwinder would be representing in the WKl as there would a formal announcement of all the teams in the coming week.
There is another league by the name of Pro Kabaddi league (PKl) that started last week but there is big difference in both the leagues. While PKl is an India-based tournament, WKl will be played internationally in 13 different cities across five countries and three contients. Both of them are also different in playing styles. PKl is played in the national style of kabaddi that is played in the rectangle-shaped area divided into two halves while WKl will be played in the circle style kabaddi popular in Punjab.
But the question that arises is whether two leagues can survive simultaneouslyIJ WKl CEO Raman Raheja says, “Both the leagues complement each other with a single vision to promote the sport that originated in India. Additionally, the two are different formats of tournaments. While WKl is being played at international level, the other league (i.e. PKl) is a domestic tournament.”
Gurmail says circle style is more action-filled as compared to national style.
“Circle style kabaddi is a combination of individual and team sport. It’s more action-filled. I don’t criticize the national style of kabaddi because so many players play it and it has helped many players getting jobs. But I don’t find it very exciting – seven players trying to grab one player isn’t exciting. Even in normal life, if four people attack one person, it doesn’t look good. One on one is always exciting -- that’s how circle kabaddi is played. It’s a mixture of athletics, gymnastic and wrestling,” he says.
Talwinder, who hails form Jalandhar district of Punjab, is a well known name in kabaddi circles. He hasn’t played any nationals because there aren’t any in circle style but he is a regular in the professional tournaments in England, Canada and US. But, according to him, what separates WKl from other professional tournaments is the financial security it provides.
“I have been playing outside India like in UK, Canada, regularly for some time now but there was no guarantee of payment in those tournaments. But now I am looking forward to playing in the WKl because everything is so professional here, salaries are good, insurance is there – in short players are being taken care of properly,” says an excited Talwinder.
The WKl promises `15 crore in players’ salary, which will be divided among 144 players accordingly. It roughly translates into over `10 lakh for each player. On top of that, there is `3.5 crore as prize money.
Kabaddi finds mentions in Indian mythology and has a tradition of tournaments that date back more than 100 years. Kabaddi received its first International exposure during the 1936 Berlin Olympics when the Hanuman Vyayaam Prasarak Mandal from Amravati in Maharashtra sent a delegation-cum-team to demonstrate the sport. The spectators were said to have been enchanted by the skill and speed of the players. Even after that, it took a long time for kabbadi to make an impact at the international level.
It was kept as a demonstration sport in the 1982 Asian Games and made its debut in 1990 in Beijing. India won the gold medal. Since then India has earned six consecutive gold medals at the Asian Games. But it was the national style of kabaddi that was getting recognition, not the circle style.
The later came into limelight when Punjab hosted four World Cups in four years (2010 to 2013) which saw the participation of 21 nations. The success of circle style kabaddi World Cups paved way for the WKl. “As the next step, we wanted to take Kabaddi ahead globally. With this aim we conceptualised World Kabaddi league, an international Kabaddi tournament,” Raman explains.
As to why it took so long for this sport to make its presence felt at the international level, Gurmail has a theory of his own. “There are two things in this. First, everything happens according to god’s plan,” he says. “Second, every sport has to go through a period of struggle for it to grow and become stronger. It happened with kabaddi too,” Gurmail adds.
The PKl has already ‘raided’ the Indian drawing rooms and with the start of WKl next week (August 9), international audiences will also be treated to this action-packed truly Indian sport.
