Waiting To Exhale

The ominous winds blowing over hockey8217;s astro-turfs for long now are unlikely to spare kabaddi8217;s ancestral mud-fields as the mat becomes rampant. But as the game goes global, Indian administrators are planning to penetrate foreign shores, not quite assured of emerging out of it with their supremacy intact.

Like its famed raiders, the sport8212; which also boasts of the seven-tier defensive formation of the Mahabharat-warriors of yore 8212; is poised to enter its own modern-day Chakravyuh. Hoping for the fate to turn out not quite like Abhimanyu 8212; Chakravyuh8217;s brave, but beaten exponent.

But first, just what is Indian kabaddi really getting into.

The August 31-September 3 Champions Trophy will see Asia8217;s top four kabaddi nations join a field of four best teams from the rest of the world in London. That the sport can find resonance with a crowd outside of India was proved earlier when, at the Asian Games last December, Doha witnessed a packed house for the Indo-Pak final.

E Prasad Rao, a member of the technical officials in Qatar, says: 8220;Everyone was talking about just two things 8212; the royal scion taking the torch on the horse at the opening ceremony and kabaddi.8221;

Presented to Olympic-standards receiving a pat on the back from the OCA president, kabaddi also found a new set of admirers when the bulk of the organisation8212;drawn from Athens8212;comprising mostly Europeans, took a liking for it. Come September, the UK will be just a springboard to launch operations in the rest of Europe 8212;with Spain and Italy showing interest and Sweden appointing its federation.

Curiously the official national game of Bangladesh, kabaddi had also made early inroads into Japan as far back as 1979 and is now popular in universities across the group of islands.

8220;Getting into the university team is tougher than cracking the Japanese national team,8221; explains Kaneko, who during his stay in Gandhinagar has busied himself with translating Prasad Rao8217;s book on kabaddi techniques.

Hiroshima leads other Japanese cities in the number of students joining up for weekend lessons and young students are charmed by the basic movements involved8212;of sliding, jumping and falling. 8220;Even in falling, Indian players show style 8212; rolling like scooter tyres,8221; the amused professor adds. Mayoral support has been forthcoming 8212; a surety of official acceptance, and Japanese girls ran their Indian rivals close at Doha8212;signaling some serious intent as well as the emergence of speed over strength in a sport which is now capped at 85 kg for men and 75 kg for women.

Al Jazeera8217;s camera crew made a surprise landing at Sri Lanka8217;s SAF Games for a preview programming of kabaddi in the run-up to the Asian Games ensuring that the gulf conglomerate of countries awakened to a new form of combat sport.

8220;I expect Afghanistan and central Asian countries alongside Russia to pick steam,8221; says Rao, who as a technical director of the Federation is keen that kabaddi develops along soccer-lines. 8220;Kabaddi, outside of India is surviving on its club culture. We will look to build on that,8221; he insists.

But far removed from development programmes undertaken worldwide, kabaddi is tracing a graph of its own. Almost an occult export, there is none of the aggressive expansionist zeal to it. Not as hot as curry, neither as cool as pashminas, and definitely more jumbled than the organized overseas distribution of Bollywood DVDs, kabaddi reaches foreign shores quietly through its rural expatriates.

Picked by curious onlookers, there is nothing of the modern razzmatazz wherein NBA8217;s suave marketing executives land in a country, well before the coaches come in. With typically gentle Indian persuasion, and some balle-balle thrown in, kabaddi8217;s no-accessory freight is definitely way off the sleek laptop presentations of development wings of international sporting federations.

No wonder then that it was the genial giant8212;Balwinder Phiddu8212;who emerged the biggest ambassador for the game travelling to little Punjabs set up in Canada, the UK and the US8212;with the circle 8216;Amar8217; style of kabaddi that is quite popular in north India. 8216;Pidda8217; 8212; the trend-setter of north-Indian dominance in kabaddi 8212; entertained with his huge frame and sheepish smile, and cajoled with his mild manners often known as the man who wouldn8217;t kill a fly outside of the ring. Club kabaddi picked up fast during his tours in the UK and Surrey even constructed the first all-kabaddi stadium.

And taking it forward8212;right into the barracks is Arun Sawant, who will start training the Royal corps and build a team that can compete at the World Military Games in Hyderabad later this year, when the game debuts in the championship.

8220;The UK army used kabaddi clippings8212;showing it as a yoga drill combo in a couple of their advertisements urging youth to enlist. They invited me to coach the army team and I8217;ll make the best of the chance to popularise the game,8221; says Sawant.

With prior experience in Japan, where Sawant jokes a lot of effort was lost in translation, this man from Lalbaug8212;Mumbai8217;s hotbed for kabaddi 8212; will head to London armed with CDs and a bagful of literature. 8220;I took six clubs to London in 1993 8212;four from Mumbai and two from Pakistan and the response was tremendous. But now as I return as coach I hope for better interaction,8221; he says.

The idea of pitting one man against seven has particularly attracted the military teams 8212; as the game tests a trooper8217;s alertness, helping one simulate the lurking danger of combat-situations.

Ditto is its appeal to a journeyman as in the case of British national Howard Stanton who managed to find a footing for a sport 8212;alien to both the country and himself when he accidentally started playing with a couple of Indians in West Indies, having earlier hoped to get into a rugby-ruck instead.

8220;Prasad Rao came and coached us for a few days, and once I was hooked, I went about making a team. In recruiting some players I ended up with a team of fellas from England, St Vincent, Jamaica , Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand and South Africa. Now there isn8217;t a single Indian-origin player in the team; the locals are sold to the game completely,8221; Stanton says.

Sunny picture this for International Kabaddi Federation president Janardhan Singh Gehlot, who is going all-out to spruce up India8217;s backyard sport. 8220;If you want to popularise the game, we need at least 50 countries taking to it in a big way. We will amend whatever rules required to take it in the global direction,8221; he says.

These include using of shoes, which has adversely affected the Indians8217; traditional grip over the ankles 8211; and threatens to pose further problems. The game awaits extensive R038;D investment in matters of surface and footwear.

Central to these reforms is the introduction of the mat and World Cup winning captain Pankaj Shirsat anticipates challenges five years down the line. 8220;Once it becomes a speed-stamina game 8212;traditionally a bane of all Indians8212;we will struggle.8221;

National coach Balwan Singh offers an all-round perspective saying, 8220;People abroad are connecting to kabaddi because it is almost like dynamic yoga. It8217;s like exercising your internal and external body8212;called kapaalbharati. The chanting of kabaddi has its own charm,8221; says the man who well into his 508217;s can still stay under-water for three whole minutes, holding his breath.

8220;The Indian team will keep pace with all the rule-changes. But alongwith maintaining our dominance, we also carry the responsibility of playing attractive, interesting kabaddi to get others hooked to the game,8221; he adds. The big man knows the world is watching, and in true kabaddi fashion, with bated breath.