What’s the story?
The fifth season of the Pro Kabaddi League is all set to start on July 28 and promises to be bigger and better than ever. The latest edition of the competition will feature a record 12 teams, after four new ones were added, and will last for three months.
Recently, the organizers of the PKL hosted a media forum in Mumbai, that featured some of the biggest names in the world of kabaddi, including foreign players and officials. Among them was Kenyan Laventa Aguta, who is the coach of the men's national team in the country and also the president of the Kenyan Kabaddi Federation.
In an interview with the Times of India, she talked about the growth of kabaddi in her nation and said that she feels that kabaddi will be a part of the Olympic Games in 2024. She said, “When we come together and walk as a team, with the little resources that we have, we can achieve this Olympic dream. I feel that kabaddi will there in the Olympics in 2024.”
Also read: Pro Kabaddi 2017 Season 5: Kabaddi players and their cricketer equivalents
In case you didn’t know
Kabaddi has never been hugely popular across the world so as to vie for a spot at the biggest sports event of them all. However, it has an Olympic appearance to its name as it was demonstrated by India at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
The heart of the matter
Kabaddi is primarily an Indian indigenous sport that has grown in popularity over the last few years thanks to the emergence of the Pro Kabaddi League. It has been played at the Asian Games, with India winning each and every time. It has a total of nine gold medals to its name – seven won my the men’s team from 1990 to 2014 and two won by the women’s team in 2010 and 2014.
However, the sport has made rapid strides in terms of going global and last year, the Kabaddi World Cup was held in Ahmedabad that saw 12 nations from across various continents take part. They were India, Iran, South Korea, Bangladesh, Thailand, Argentina, USA, Poland, England, Japan, Kenya and Australia.
It was India who were crowned champions, after defeating Iran in a well-contested final. South Korea and Thailand were the other two semifinalists.
What’s next?
It remains to be seen whether the sport will be added to the list of Olympic sports any time soon.
Author’s take
It is quite unlikely that kabaddi will be added to the Games as soon as 2024, but we hope that the effort to grow the sport globally continue to take place and that it eventually finds a place at the biggest stage of them all.
Related: Pro Kabaddi 2017 Season 5: Five teams with the weakest defence
