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Stuck in the mud

With the landscape of the sport changing, Karnataka has a long way to go before it catches up

The landscape of the sport of kabaddi has certainly changed over the last few decades. The sport that yielded a gold medal for India in each of the five Asian Games since its introduction as a "demonstration sport" at the 1982 New Delhi Asiad has undergone a facelift of late.

Perhaps the most apparent change in the sport has been the shift from bulk to speed and agility.

The days when a bulky raider would carry three or four players at one go to the touchline are a thing of the past. Nowadays, seldom does one see a "catch", while the "bonus line" touch always accumulates the points for a team.

"The introduction of the bonus line rule in 1984-85 has seen the removal of bulk and strength from kabaddi" ascertains R. Manjunath, a reputed kabaddi coach associated with the Sports Authority of Karnataka (SAK). A senior national player, Manjunath took to coaching and administration after his playing days and has many a state junior and a good number of seniors too vouching for his reading of the game and training methods.

Manjunath and fellow coach Eashwar Angadi are on the forefront of reviving and developing kabaddi, which was once very popular in the country. It was in the '70s and '80s that Karnataka played a dominant role at the national level. "That was in the bygone era, however," admits M. Seetharam, the present State Secretary and the Secretary General of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI). Nevertheless, with the able support from the likes of former state players Narasimbha Murthy and Shashipriya and a few others, the Association is making headway on the administration front. Another innovation that has helped promote the sport in Karnataka is the STC (Special Training Centre) scheme started by SAI about six years ago. . "With 10-15 boys being recruited by the two academies at Bangalore and Dharwad every year, the player base is definitely improving and soon enough Karnataka should make the news at the national level," says Manjunath.

They still have a long way to go however. Today, Railways accounts for the cream of talent from all over the country, and only States from the north such as Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan have been dominating the sport. Services had beefy stars that ruled the roost for many years, but the Army's hold is faltering. Besides Railways, BSNL and, of late, ONGC and Air India have also been gathering talented players into the fold while genuine product bases like Karnataka and Hyderabad are slipping away from contention.

"From the South, only Tamil Nadu has managed to adapt adequately to the speedier variety of the game and soon after the `bonus line' rule was introduced, it managed to corner the national titles. We had players like B.E. Gopi and later on C. Honappa and B.C. Ramesh came up and were awarded Arjuna awards for their showing. But, since then Karnataka has failed to make an impact at the National championships," says Eashwar Angadi , who is associated with SAI, Bangalore.

Despite the best intentions backing efforts to revive the sport, the way has been pockmarked by mistakes and roadblocks. One of the primary difficulties is that the bank and telecom sectors are the only ones providing jobs besides Railways. Therefore, the onus is on players to represent these institutions rather than the State. "We have lost many such players," asserts Manjunath.

Moreover, the STC academy in Dharwad has no coach as on date, and hence the five or six latest inductees have been left clueless. "Today there are just four or five coaches in the State and at times we are posted to centres without any base for the sport there," says a disappointed Manjunath, who feels that there is enough talent to in Karnataka to produce great results.

SAK, on the other hand, has neither an academy nor hostel facilities for this discipline, and hence the rural kabaddi talent has no avenue or encouragement for its development. Shrisail, a coach in Davangere, however, has managed to send many players to the national and international level through sheer commitment and support from private enterprise. Much of the blame for this sorry state of affairs falls on the State Association.

Perhaps the best example of administrative failures is the just-concluded 26th Federation Cup Championship. Synthetic mats were used for outdoor games. When it rained, the organisers were forced to shift courts, including during the men's final, to the adjacent mud court, while on sunny days the players complained that they were getting blisters from playing on the rubber mats without shoes. This was a poor excuse for experimentation.

In the '70s and '80s, private sector teams and clubs boomed, and being a low-budget sport, kabaddi yielded many tournaments and championships. But today, with lesser exposure and fewer clubs surviving the changed times, there is a dearth in well-groomed talent for the national team. Tourneys at the school and college level have also dried up as the youth have begun to opt for more glamorous sports. At the World Cup held last year in Mumbai, India managed to live up to its billing as the best. But countries from the Middle East and Iran, in particular, are improving by leaps and bounds. In Japan, a great impact has been made through multimedia coaching aids and so on, and the day when more formidable teams appear on the scene is not too far away.

AVINASH NAIR

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