Mumbai: On Tuesday afternoon the former Indian Skipper Kapil Dev, who was the chief guest at the Kabaddi World Cup Media Conference in Mumbai fumed over a Journalist, when he was asked why Pakistan was not invited to take part in the tournament to be held from October 7 in Ahmedabad.
Given the present situation, when Indians are all angry and sad over the massive terror strike that killed 18 brave soldiers at an army camp in the garrison town of Uri on Sunday, this question from the journalist was more of a tactic to get a reaction from the former Indian skipper.
Kapil Dev answered to the question with another question fuming, obviously referring to the deadly Fidayeen attack by militants suspected to be from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) on Sunday at Uri. He asked, “If you are a Hindustani you should not ask the question at all. Is it the time to ask this question?”
Kapil, who unveiled the Indian team’s jersey at the conference, also said, “Such things should be left to the government to decide. As sportsmen representing the country if we are told to jump into a pond, we will readily do it.”
Twelve teams, including India, are included in the list which are going to take part in the third edition of the tournament and that list does not include Pakistan.
This is the third edition of the tournament and the tournament was held in 2004 and 2007 prior to this upcoming edition.
Anup Kumar from Haryana will lead India in the Kabaddi World Cup. All-rounder Manjeet Chillar will be Anup’s deputy in the 14-member team for the tournament.
The countries which will take part in the tournament are Iran, South Korea, Bangladesh, USA, England, Australia, Poland, Thailand, Japan, Argentina, Kenya and the present host, India. Balwan Singh is the head coach of the team with E Baskaran as his deputy.