From National Football League to Pro Kabaddi League, Michal Spiczko hopes to find feet

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And he wasn’t the first to think that. General Secretary of Kabaddi Poland Michal Sosin too had a similar reaction when he first saw the sport. “Guys were holding hands and playing berek. That was my first reaction,” he states. Berek essentially involves a player touching another and running away. The person tagged is the ‘berek.’

First viewing of the berek-like foreign sport happened in October last year. International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) treasurer Ashok Das travelled to Warsaw with two English women’s teams to play a series of friendly matches against each other.

In the audience stood dignitaries ranging from the city mayor to the Indian High Commissioner in the Polish capital. Almost all present at the centrally located Pole Mokotowskie Park instantly found similarities to berek. Nonetheless, opinions changed. “People came up and said that it looked like rugby, but without the ball. Some also said we look like jail wardens trying to catch an escaping prisoner before he could cross the gate,” Sosin says.

Spiczko on the other hand, caught his first sight of the game just five months ago. On the suggestion of the general manager of the Warsaw Eagles — his American football team — he read up on the sport just a night before his first practice session. “I too thought it was Berek. I’ve played it when I was a kid so I thought this was easy. I could do this. Then when I saw it, I figured there’s also a bit of wrestling involved,” he recalls.

American dreams

Since taking up the sport, Spiczko has been a regular at the early morning training sessions at the park. So instrumental has his involvement in the sport been, that the IT professional, who runs his own company, was a dominant figure in the first ever Polish national team, that incidentally won gold in their first international tournament – against five English clubs just last month. “It’s a weird kind of history to be making. Not something ever thought of. But it is still history for us,” asserts Spiczko.

Before the kabaddi dream though, there was one that involved the American sport. The Eagles’ star running back once dared a faint hope of making it to the coveted National Football League in the United States. It’s a hope he still holds high despite the kabaddi sojourn.

“That will be quite a thing. NFL in the US, and PKL in India,” he chuckles.

Nonetheless, he is excited at the prospect of travelling to Bangalore. Naturally, his preferences when it comes to a favourite team have shifted from what his fellow Poles hold. Sosin claims that incumbent champions Jaipur Pink Panthers is the team most have taken a liking too. But not Spiczko. For him it’s all about the franchise that was willing to shell out Rs 1.5 lakh for his services. “It’ll always be the Bulls and for obvious reasons!” he adds.

League’s foreign connection

Takamitsu Kono (JAPAN)

At 22, Takamitsu Kono is a student of the Taisho University is working to attain his degree in Buddhism. The academic accolade is one that he claims will aid him in his journey to becoming a monk. Yet, despite the harmonious ways propagated by the religion, Kono has an affinity for contact sport. An avid rugby fan, he had to forgo the sport when he moved to college, where the game wasn’t played. Here he got acquainted with kabaddi. Sold to the Dabang Delhi for Rs 2.8 lakh at last year’s auction, the defender featured against the Paltans, gathering two points in total — through a successful raid and tackle.

Masayuki Shimokawa (JAPAN)

Masayuki Shimokawa is often rated as Japan’s best player. The 26-year-old had been a part of the Japanese team that won bronze at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010. despite his prowess on the mat, the raider works as a fish monger.

Dealing in frozen crabs, he purchases the catch as early as 3 a.m, only to resell them to supermarkets, restaurants and hotels. Meanwhile, training sessions with the kabaddi team comes every alternate day when he’s back home.

Picked up by U Mumba team for Rs 2.3 lakh last year, the raider featured briefly in three games, eventually picking up a silver medal as a part of last year’s runner-up team.

Sinotharan Kanesharajah (SRI LANKA)

Playing for the Bengaluru Bulls last year was the first time Sinotharan Kanesharajah featured on a mat. his experience in the sport prior to the Indian marquee event was either on mud or sand — this included appearances for his national team in the 2012 and bronze-medal winning 2014 Asian Beach Games. The 26-year-old raider took up the sport five years ago when the then basketball enthusiast was introduced to the game by a college friend. Subsequently, he was with the Lankan Navy through sports quota. At the PKL last season, the Bulls’ Rs 2.3 lakh purchase featured in a single game, notching up five points — four from raids and one from a tackle.

Iketut Ariana (INDONESIA)

The 28-year-old Indonesian defender works as a coach at a junior high school in his native Bali. Once in a while, the former 100 metre sprinter and footballer also takes time to train a few interested pupils in the Indian sport. He was initiated into the sport in 2008 when Bali was set to host the Asian Beach Games that year. Since then the game has become popular in Bali, and he a regular in the side. Though part of the Bengaluru Bulls squad last year, the defender is still waiting for his first appearance on the mat.