Boys to men, kabaddi team impress

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The Sarawak men’s kabaddi team pose before a match at the inaugural National Kabaddi Tournament held in Dato Hamzah Hall in Klang, Selangor last Saturday.

KUCHING: Sarawak men’s kabaddi team delivered a strong performance during the inaugural National Kabaddi Tournament held at the Dato Hamzah Hall in Klang, Selangor from April 5-6.

At the start, pundits considered the state team as outsiders not expected to go beyond the group stages.

In the two-group first round matches, Sarawak had to battle Perlis, Johor and Kedah.

They won the first two matches, winning comfortably 77-25 and 71-23 against Perlis and Johor respectively.

The team finally lost in their third match 13-31 to Kedah but qualified for the semi-finals after finishing second in their group.

“We tried out best to win against Kedah and avoid the Negeri Sembilan team (in the semi-final) who were favourites to win this tournament.

“I guess Kedah had a better game plan to win the crucial match against us,” said state head coach Ganisan Punisamy.

Negeri Sembilan beat Sarawak 23-15 in the semi-finals before defeating Kedah in the final to be crowned champions.

According Ganisan, the state team were serious contenders in the tournament rather than merely competing for exposure.

“Some called us dark horses during the tournament while some called us underdogs. To us, we are solely focussed on winning the title.

Losing out to the tournament champions was not that bad at all, it gave us hope that we can rub shoulders with the big boys from now on,” he added.

He said the team raised many eyebrows during the competition and no one would dare call Sarawak newbies to this sport anymore.

Kabaddi, a traditional Indian sport, was taken up seriously in Sarawak since 2008 when the state team made their first appearance in an exhibition match at the Terengganu Sukma.

A unique feature of the Sarawak team is that it comprised players mostly from the Bumiputra community as compared to the other state teams which normally fielded all Indians.