TENKASI: Several months ago, on a breezy night, the district-level Tenkasi women’s Kabaddi team arrived in Kanniyakumari to take part in the State-level Senior Championship organised by the Tamil Nadu Amateur Kabaddi Federation. When the seven playing members of the 12-member squad from Tenkasi stepped onto the court, the organisers on the stage, as well as coaches from various districts, were stunned. Soon, a discussion broke out among them.
After a brief huddle, a few organisers approached the Tenkasi team’s coach and administrator and politely said that their team could not play. They then advised them to have dinner and return home. The reason: most of the Tenkasi players were under-14 sub-juniors, while senior teams featured college-going women across the state. Securing entry cost the team at least an hour of discussions with the organisers.
The girls were eventually allowed to play against the Mayiladuthurai senior team, bolstered with college players. To everyone’s shock, the Tenkasi girls seized the upper hand from the very first minute. They defeated Mayiladuthurai with a huge margin and did not stop there, going on to beat four more district teams with remarkable coordination. The girls secured the third position in the Senior Championship.
This was not an isolated incident. These under-14 girls, members of the Elampuyal Kabaddi Team of Kalathimadam, a remote village in Tenkasi, have often struggled just to gain entry into open tournaments across the state, only to claim top prizes.
Over the past five years, the girls have secured trophies in open and government-sponsored Kabaddi tournaments across the state. The man behind the Elampuyal Kabaddi Team, G Soundrapandi (44), is a two-wheeler mechanic and Kabaddi enthusiast from Kalathimadam. He began coaching girls from his village in 2020 and now trains 25 players – all daughters of beedi rollers.
“Like everyone else, the COVID-19 pandemic, though disastrous, gave me time and clarity,” Soundrapandi said. “My wife and mother are beedi rollers. I studied up to SSLC and rolled beedis in the evenings. When my daughter was in a government primary school in 2020, I decided she should not take up the same work. To keep her away from it, I began coaching her with seven other girls from similar backgrounds in my village.”
Convincing parents took weeks, since children often assist in beedi rolling alongside their studies. “But once the girls started winning tournaments, parents began showing interest. Today, we have 25 girls on the team,” he added.
To make participation in tournaments easier, Soundrapandi convinced parents to enrol all the girls in the Government High School, Andipatti, and later in a government-aided SSV higher secondary school, Madhapattinam. As per their agreement with Soundrapandi, the schools support the team and send them to matches across the country, since most of these girls excel in their studies as well. Whenever state-level events such as the CM Trophy, Republic Day Sports (RDS), and sub-junior and junior tournaments are announced, at least four or five Elampuyal girls represent Tenkasi district. In privately-organised open matches, the whole team plays.
“Our girls have won Tenkasi district gold medals in the under-14 RDS and CM Trophy a few times. When they secured bronze in the CM Trophy, they received Rs 3,00,000 in cash also. In open matches, our girls have won more than 100 trophies and several lakhs of rupees in prizes,” he said.
One of the players, Brindha S, has been selected twice to represent Tamil Nadu nationally by the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India, participating in the 34th Sub-Junior National Championship in Bihar and the 35th in Haryana. Another player, Swarna Devi, recently played for the Tamil Nadu team in under-14 national-level matches organised by the School Games Federation of India.
Players including Sivani M, Mariya Theresa N, Ajitha A, Keerthika J, Pradheesha S, Devi M, Maharasi V, Abinaya D, Merlin P, Priya G, Harishni S, and Inshiya M have been part of the Tenkasi team that won gold in various tournaments in recent years. Team members on various occasions have travelled to Kerala, Maharashtra, Bihar, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh for competitions and national camps.
The girls told TNIE that they were never charged for coaching or other expenses. “Fathers of some girls, particularly Saravanan P and Dravidamani A, along with our Kabaddi coach M Siva and advisor Mani David T, have supported us in many ways. Others, including DMK functionary M Sivabalan from Erode, Ronald Immanuel, a health official from Kerala, and A Karuthaiah, a cattle farmer from Srivaikundam, also helped financially after witnessing the girls’ talent at tournaments,” Soundrapandi said. His ambition remains to provide the girls with a world-class playground and top facilities in Kalathimadam.
“I want to free our village girls from beedi rolling. One day, my girls will represent India in international matches,” he said. Despite financial constraints, Soundrapandi recently purchased a second-hand car for the team’s travel. “It pained me to see the girls travelling in a load-auto to nearby places and by train for long distances,” he added. As his second-hand car hums with promise, the Elampuyal girls raid not just opponents, but the shadows of their village’s hardships -- beedi smoke curling into dreams of something greater, one leap at a time.