Whenever Balwan Singh, the 54-year-old head coach of the Indian kabaddi team, intones “kabaddi… kabaddi… kabaddi”, his diaphragm moves in a time-tested rhythm not unlike that of a trained vocalist executing an intricate raga. The stomach movement is so pronounced that it is visible through his t-shirt. As Singh says, “Uttering the word while playing is good not only for concentration but also for the internal body organs. To my knowledge, there is no other sport that can help maintain overall fitness like kabaddi does.”

I’m meeting Singh to talk about the soon-to-be-launched Pro Kabaddi League (PKL). The brainchild of veteran sports commentator Charu Sharma, backed by his brother-in-law and industrialist Anand Mahindra, PKL is slated to take off in July-August with eight city franchises graced by stars from 24 kabaddi-playing nations, including India.

And like in the case of cricket’s IPL or football’s ISL, the owners are a mixed bag of who’s who — from actor Abhishek Bachchan (Jaipur) and Future Group’s Kishore Biyani (Kolkata) to Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank (Pune) and UTV’s Ronnie Screwvala (Mumbai).

Homegrown strength

While many of us might know that the Spanish football team Real Madrid has won the Champions League nine times and the La Liga 32 times, it’s unlikely that we know India is undefeated in kabaddi, having won the gold at every international championship held in the last three decades. Competing against 11 countries, the national team has retained the kabaddi gold ever since the sport was introduced at the Asian Games in 1990.

Singh has coached and managed the unbeaten team since 2003. I meet the Dronacharya awardee outside the gates of the New Willingdon Camp on Delhi’s Race Course Road; by the time we reach an eatery nearby for a chat over coffee and pakoras, Singh, clearly a genial man, has already invited at least three of the guards to join us and greeted pretty much every passerby.

“I know it’s not as popular as cricket, but one shouldn’t forget that kabaddi is our country’s oldest sport. It is said to have been around since the time of the Mahabharat, and that’s a remarkably long time for a sport to survive,” Singh says, in what is now a familiar refrain among those in the world of kabaddi or the PKL.

Pulling in the crowds and money

“I see this venture as a means of reconnecting with our country’s past,” says Charu Sharma. “I fell in love with the sport at the Asian Games at Doha in 2006. I came back and told Anand (Mahindra); we have been meaning to take this up for a long time now... Kabaddi has evolved into a slick, sophisticated sport over the years, and forming a pro-league seems the best thing to do.” The league will travel across the country with support from the All India Kabaddi Federation. With multi-city venues and top-class players, Charu is certain it will be a great crowd-puller.

While he agrees professional leagues and the money involved can bring their own set of troubles, he’s confident that “severe checks and punishments” can tackle them.

For national-team players such as Rakesh Kumar and Navneet Gautam, the PKL has come as a surprise, albeit a welcome one. As Kumar, the captain says, “I started playing seriously when I was 13. In my village Nizampur, outside Delhi, kabaddi has a rich tradition and I’m proud to carry on this tradition.”

He is excited by the fresh new prospects thrown up by the league. “While we can live quite comfortably as international kabaddi players, the PKL will definitely be a boon for us. Not only will it bring more attention to the game, but we’ll also get to play with star players from other countries and learn from them. This will be especially useful for the upcoming Asian games in Korea this September.”

Go native

Kabaddi players from countries such as Chinese Taipei, Italy, Iran, Pakistan, South Korea and England, to name a few, will play in the league. Navneet Gautam, a defender in the national team, agrees with his captain. “See, it’s good that we get to play more and at such a high level. I’ve been in the top level for over a decade now… (but) there are many for whom it’s harder, and setups such as the PKL will encourage more people to take up the game.”

There is optimism in the run-up to the first edition of the league later this year. Sharma points to the larger picture: “This is India’s indigenous sport; in the US they don’t care that no one else follows their version of football, but they go crazy over it. We should take pride in kabaddi too, and PKL should go some way in encouraging that.”

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