Mumbai: The politician tension between India and Pakistan after the Uri attack is putting a strain on the sports ties of the two countries as well. While the cricket bosses of both countries are taking jabs at each other, India has decided not to invite Pakistan for the 2016 kabaddi world cup which begins from this Friday.
Deoraj Chaturvedi, chief of International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), said that Pakistan is denied entry due to the spike in tensions between the two nuclear armed nations.
“This is not the right time to engage with Pakistan. Pakistan is a valuable member of the IKF but looking at the current scenario and in the best interest of both the nations, we decided that Pakistan must be refrained from the championship,” said Chaturvedi.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is whining about being denied a fair opportunity of “beating India in India”.
Pakistani captain Nasir Ali claimed that his team had a fair shot at winning the world cup as they had already defeated India in six nation Kabaddi cup held in Pakistan in May and last month’s Asian games in Vietnam.
“We were hoping to win the World Cup in India by beating India,” Ali said, also stating that the fans were denied of a high octane match between the two rival nations.
12-nation Kabaddi World Cup.
Ahmedabad will be the host of the first match of the World cup as the formidable Iran will battle it out with the newbie United states of America on Friday’s opening round of the competition that also includes top sides from Australia, South Korea, England, Poland, Kenya and Argentina.
With the last World Cup held nine years ago, all teams are excited for their chance to compete in this event which will goes on for 2 weeks. Even though this traditional sport of India has recently grown in popularity is involved in the media controversy over the decision to kick out Pakistan of the World cup who are great runners for the title.
Pakistan accused IKF of wrongly targeting their country stating that both rival nations to be excluded if security concerns are involved.
“We have called a meeting to discuss this issue but let me tell you that a Kabaddi World Cup is no world cup without Pakistan,” said Pakistan kabaddi federation secretary Rana Muhammad Sarwar.
“This is just like a football world cup without Brazil.”
Both nations have resorted to hostility after India stated that it conducted a military strike against Pakistani militants inside Pakistan, sparking flame between both the governments. The strikes came after the the militant gunmen attempted a cowardly attack on Indian army base which enraged New Delhi.
Back from the dead
The traditional sport of India has come back from the dead to host its own World cup after nine years. The sport which is played in sandy parks of India for generations is now brought back to limelight.
The Pro Kabaddi League which started in 2014 with live television coverage, corporate sponsors and brightly coloured lycra strips has proven hugely popular and drawn players from Iran and South Korea.
Iran’s skipper Meraj Sheykh, who has played in the league’s last three editions, said his side had grown stronger by playing in India and other international tournaments.
Kabaddi takes serious breathing skills as two seven-member teams send a raider into their enemy’s half of the court to tag an opponent before returning — in just one breath will chanting “kabaddi kabaddi” to prove that they are not inhaling.
The game is played across 35 countries but is dominated by India where the sport originated.
Iran, who lost two World cup finals to India in 2007 and 2004 have an easy first match against the new comer USA.
India will also take on South Korea as the second match of the opening match of the opening day. In this round-robin tournament, top two teams of the groups will qualify for the semi-finals, with the finals to be held on Oct 22nd.