ANUP KUMAR WILL BE THE CYNOSURE OF ALL EYES
Team India and Mumbai franchise captain is one of the main attractions for the forthcoming Pro Kabbadi League which will commence from 28 July.
Few can match the credentials of Anup Kumar, who is captaining U Mumba in the forthcoming Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), which gets underway from July 28. The 32-year- old, a Deputy Superintdent of Police, Haryana Police, has been one of the country’s most decorated players.
Anup was instrumental in helping India win the gold medal at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games is one of the country’s finest raiders. Currently the captain of Team India he has been an inspiration for his teammates.
The short haired Anup, who is also known for his cool nature in a sport which can be quite high strung and volatile. When queired how he managed to keep his calm even during the most hard times, Anup said it was his nature to remain cool. “Basically from my childhood days, I don’t lose my temper. One tends to get ruffled and lose one’s cool in a physical sport like kabbadi. But I keep reminding myself to remain cool and don’t get flustered by When asked to spell out his brightest moment so far,Anup said it was the gold medal at the Incheon Asian Games which stood out. “It was a very tough and heated contest against Iran. We were not in the best of form and we had to comeback from a 10 point defecit. I can still not forget the tension in the air as we went on to register a two point victory,” he recalled..
He felt that India were lucky to win that match. “I still believe that there was hardly anything separating Iran from us and it was Iran who had the early momentum. ‘The match could have gone either way and I feel that we were lucky to prevail that day,.” .he added.
Turning his attention to the forthcoming Pro Kabaddi League, Anup said maintaining fitness was the key for a team’s success..’Under the PKL format which has so many matches, fitness assumes a very integral part. The sheer level of competition in the PKL ensures that only the fittest team can make it to the pinnacle,” said Anup.
«We are working on our fitness now. A 20-day team (U Mumba) camp which was held at Dehradun was completely focused on fitness. We hardly got a chance to step on the mat,» said Anup
Meanwhile, A 13-week long kabaddi season will begin on July 28 in Hyderabad and will travel across 12 host cities, culminating in Chennai with the ultimate battle of Kabaddi supremacy taking place on October 28.
In the new format, 12 teams have been divided into two zones of six teams each, where each of them will play 15 intra-zone and seven interzone matches, prior to the play-offs.
The play- offs stage will comprise three qualifiers and two eliminators, which are scheduled to take place in Mumbai and Chennai.
The first match will see Rahul Chaudhary-led Telugu Titans clash with Tamil Thalaivas, which boasts of marquee player, Ajay Thakur.
Commenting on the new format, PKL Commissioner Anupam Goswami said: «For Season 5, our goal was to create a high-impact tournament which evokes euphoric sentiment among fans for their favourite teams.»