Post Jakarta, kabaddi takes a messy turn
NEWDELHI: Indian kabaddi may be heading towards another unsuccessful raid, literally!
The state of the sport has come to such a pass that the Delhi High Court-appointed administrators and sports ministry officials will oversee the selection of the men’s and women’s team players on Saturday who will take on the national team players who settled for bronze and silver, respectively at the Asian Games in Jakarta.
The date for the big clash will be announced later.
This is the first time in the history of Indian kabaddi that the national teams will have to prove their worth against players who were not selected. Jakarta saw the traditional bastion fall with the Indian men’s team losing it decades-long supremacy, while the women’s team finished with silver.
Even before the team left for Jakarta, questions had been raised over the selection of the players, and the Delhi High Court had asked for transparency in trials. Though the players finally set sail after the sports ministry’s three-member panel selected the team, questions remained about the preparedness of the Jakarta-bound team.
On court in Jakarta, the raiders seemed to be ‘losing the cant’ and skipper Ajay Thakur quickly blamed it on the selec- tion mess, launching a scathing attack on the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) and its flawed selection.
As per the courts order, players from across the country will appear for trials and the courtappointed administrator, Justice SP Garg (retired), will oversee the proceedings along with sports ministry officials.
Acting on a petition filed by former internationals C Honnappa Gowda and S Rajarathinam last month, the court had ordered the selection trials. Even if both the men’s and women’s teams had won gold in Jakarta, they would have had to take this ‘trial’.
One cannot predict the outcome of the contest whenever it takes place, but kabaddi, which is being ‘promoted’ as the best thing to happen to India sports, is already gasping for breath.