BENGALURU: Kabaddi has always been a very accessible sport right from the grassroots level. Most likely because you don’t need any equipment to play it, only players. Alongside football (which still needs a ball), kabaddi is one of the few contact sports that children from all walks of life can play. However, the sport’s accessibility is where its advantages used to end.
There used to be no defined career growth for a professional kabaddi player. You might have been part of the gold medal team, but hardly anyone would know you. This meant sustaining yourself with just your career as a professional player was an extremely daunting task. At least, this was the case until the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) was introduced in 2014. With PKL, players got a lot more media coverage, kabaddi became a lot more glamorous, and it opened giant doors for players and coaches alike.
Randhir Singh, coach of the PKL team Bengaluru Bulls, feels that even though the league has increased the popularity of the sport nationwide, Bengaluru has always had a fanbase for kabaddi. “I have been involved with this sport for 42 years, 20 as a player and 22 as a coach. And as far as I remember, this city and Karnataka have always had a successful history with kabaddi. They’ve been champions before. But PKL has indeed amplified its popularity by many bounds. You can see people from all over the country coming to watch the matches,” says Singh.
Having reached the semi-finals on several occasions, along with being the runner-ups in the second season, Bengaluru Bulls finally became champions in season six, and have been a very successful team in PKL. In the current season, the team currently sits in the third position. “With the league’s success, opportunities for young athletes interested in the sport have increased beyond our wildest imaginations. During my time, success in kabaddi did not guarantee employment. That has changed now. There is a clear future for kabaddi now,” adds Singh.
Joginder Singh Narwal, currently the captain of Haryana Steelers, but who has previously played for Bengaluru Bulls, shares an interesting anecdote about a certain cricketing legend. “One time, Rahul Dravid had come to watch one of our matches. We noticed his son had an injury on his hand. When we enquired about it, Dravid told us that his son got injured while playing kabaddi! That gave me an idea of how big this sport has become that even the son of a famous cricketer is indulging in it,” shares Narwal.
Arjuna awardee and captain of Gujarat Giants, Ram Mehar Singh, believes Bengaluru is one of the best cities to host PKL. “The crowd in this city is a brilliant cheering squad. I was in the stadium during one of their matches, and the way the city’s fans supported the Bengaluru Bulls was electrifying. I always believe the fans are a huge factor behind a team’s success,” says Mehar Singh, who won gold medals for the Indian team in the 1998 and 2002 Asian Games.
Speaking of Bengaluru Bulls fans, Charan Raj N, who is the vice-president at JP Morgan Chase & Co, says that he is pleased to see so many schools and colleges now having their own kabaddi teams. “In the early 2000s, an educational institution having a kabaddi team would have been an anomaly. I’m glad that has changed now. You can see the culture around the sport has grown out of its niche and spread across the mainstream. I am a given example of PKL’s success, as I got invested in the sport through the league itself. Now I can’t have enough of it. I keep track of Bengaluru Bulls’ every match, and in their latest game against U Mumba yesterday, I saw our side mount the greatest comeback ever,” says Charan.