Kabaddi needs to be promoted at rural level: Ajay Thakur

Suryapet: Former caption of Indian National Kabaddi team, Padma Shri awardee and Selection Committee member Ajay Thakur stated that concentration and presence of mind were key mantras to win the Kabaddi game, and ruled out the assumption of Kabaddi having no future.

In an exclusive interview with The Hans India, he explained that player's personnel skill, team spirit and timely decision to take upper hand on the rival teams are criteria for the selection to the national team.

He stated that when parents were able to prioritise their children's tastes, the children would excel in their respective fields and the results would be good.

Thakur opined that excellent players could be produced if sports were promoted in schools on par with academic studies. At the same time, he stressed on the need to set up clubs in rural areas and competitions at regular intervals in order to create craze on the game.

"Kabaddi not only helps in maintaining physical fitness and mental balance, but also helps to keep away the oneself from bad habits," he said, adding that enthusiastic kabaddi players have to practice daily three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening to master the game.

He called upon people to come forward and encourage kabaddi on par with cricket, which could be played easily anywhere irrespective of villages and metros.

Adding that the players of Sports Authority of India (SAI) have been giving best performances in recent times, the former national caption expressed his satisfaction over sports policies of the Centre and the States and added that earlier Indian players in any game used to get only Rs 2,000 as pension, but now they were getting Rs 18,000 to 20,000.

He expressed his pleasure over hosting National Kabaddi Competitions for the first time in rural area like Suryapet. Adding that he had not seen such arrangements even in urban areas, Thakur was all praise for Energy Minister and chief patron of the tournament G Jagadish Reddy for the arrangements.