Kabaddi Our National Game

Sheikh Iraj

With our obsession with cricket_and to some extent football _our national sport of kabaddi seems to have taken a back seat. As a matter of fact, many even are not aware of the fact that kabaddi is Bangladesh’s national sport. And certainly many will be hard-pressed to name members of the national team. And the reasons are not too hard to find.
It is a traditional rural sport which does not get much media exposure. Organisers cite lack of funds as sponsors are not coming in a big way to support the sport. Interestingly though, kabaddi is gaining popularity internationally. Particularly with India and Pakistan playing a major role, kabaddi is soaring in popularity.
One can argue that it depends on the people as to which sport they find more interesting. Then how have India, Pakistan, and other countries like Iran been able to revive this game from dust and transformed its reputation overnight?
Nazrul Islam, general secretary of Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation explains: “Normally, kabaddi is more popular in the rural areas of our country. There are several reasons why kabaddi has failed to hold onto its fame, lack of funding is one of them. Every year, we receive only six or seven lakh taka from the National Sports Council (NSC), but we spend more than 70 to 80 lakhs annually. The rest of the money is collected through organising tournaments, but we normally do not get sponsors that easily. There are simply not enough initiatives. We have to understand that this game is part of our culture. Now, when foreign guests come to our country, we welcome them with a bouquet of flowers. But have you seen a single shapla (water lily) in that bouquet? The same thing happened when it comes to kabaddi. People have lost passion simply because of the lack of publicity. The media has a role to play in this as well. We would like to think of the media as our partner to help popularise this game again, so when we organise tournaments, the media should give more coverage. Nearly in all the schools, especially in Dhaka, you will see that physical education teachers do not motivate the students to take up this game. In India, they have huge investment coming into this sport, their Pro Kabaddi League is a success story that we can follow.”
There are various theories or stories as to where the game originated, but one thing is for sure_its root goes back a long way, more than many would imagine. According to Wikipedia, the earliest form of the game was probably played during ancient times in the Indian Subcontinent, according to references found in the Indian epic, Mahabharata.  Writings by 17-Century poet Tukaram point to Lord Krishna playing kabaddi as a boy. For many years, kabaddi was practiced in Indian Vedic schools. In Bangladesh, one can say kabaddi is a more refined form of ha-du-du, which is quite popular in our country. Ha-du-du has no definite rules and is played with different rules in different parts of the country. But when it comes to kabaddi, we follow the international kabaddi rules.
Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation was formed in 1973. We have both men’s and women’s national kabaddi teams. They participate regularly in international kabaddi tournaments, such as South Asian Games, Asian Kabaddi Championship, Kabaddi World Cup and Asian Games, where they used to win medals.
National tournaments like Inter Service Kabaddi, Bijoy Dibosh Kabaddi, Shadhinota Dibos Kabaddi, Inter School Kabaddi, IGP Cup National Youth Kabaddi, Premier Division Kabaddi League, First Division Kabaddi League and Second Division Kabaddi League are organised. But if you Google for any of these tournaments, you are unlikely to find much information. One of the primary reasons for that is Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation doesn’t have a website of its own.
Subimal Chandra Das, coach of the national men’s team, said, “I hope kabaddi is going to make a comeback. There used to be a number of kabaddi tournaments organised every year, but for a couple of years now, that number has been reduced. Many amateur players used to take part in the game as we did, but that is quite rare nowadays. We need to promote kabaddi throughout the year, all around the country. Now, we have only a few players in our team, why is that? Because kabaddi is not able to promise a shining career like cricket or football. We have tournaments like Premier, First and Second division kabaddi leagues, from where we chose the best talents and bring them in. The Second Division Kabaddi League has just started with eight club-based teams from Dhaka. We are hopeful that we will be able to find some new talent from this. We also have to make sure the gifted players who come out of these tournaments have secure careers. Normally, the defence institutions give jobs to kabaddi players; we need to make sure that they have more career opportunities from various sectors. Only then a player would be able to concentrate fully on the game. I also feel that the Kabaddi Federation can do a lot more.”
Shahanaj Parvin, captain of our national women’s team, said: “I joined Bangladesh Ansar in 2003. I initially played handball, then in 2005, there was a shortage of players in the women kabaddi team, so my seniors suggested that I play kabaddi. Thus, I participated in a couple of trial games for the Asian Games. My performance was good, so immediately I was selected to play for the national team. It was a good chance for me. Simply, I saw this as an opportunity to do something for our country. Also, because of kabaddi I could visit many places around the world. Right now, we are practising for the upcoming Asian Beach Games and the Asian Games. We practice in the Women’s Sports Complex (in Dhanmondi). There are 16 national women kabaddi players here. There is a lot of talent all around the country, but we need to bring them into the spotlight. Sadly, some of the major tournaments which helped to bring talented players up front have not been organised for few years now. I believe, in order to make kabaddi more popular, we need more support from the people, and the Kabaddi Federation should take more initiatives to make that happen.”  
MA Zaman, captain of the national men’s team, had a more positive outlook about the game: “I started playing for the police kabaddi team, and then I played in the inter-service and national kabaddi tournaments. After playing in both the tournaments, I got a call from the national kabaddi team in 2009. One of the prime reasons kabaddi is not that popular as cricket or football is because many do not know the rules of kabaddi. Ha-du-du is more popular all around our country. It does not have any particular set of rules. In different parts of the country, that game is played under different rules. And people make a big mistake when they think kabaddi is ha-du-du, which is completely wrong. I believe if we can organise a pro kabaddi tournament like India, then kabaddi will become popular again. Now, many districts do not have their own kabaddi team, that’s why it is hard to find players. I also believe school PE teachers need to encourage the students to play this game.”