Sarawak team posing after the tournament held at Pandan Indah in KL last week. Ganisan is seen standing at the back (in yellow).
KUCHING: State coach Ganisan Punisamy’s non-Indian women state kabaddi team have done it again when they finished second at the Malaysia Open Kabaddi tournament held at Pandan Indah in Kuala Lumpur from June 26-28.
Just last month, the state women’s team made waves in the Malaysian kabaddi scene when they won a national tournament for the first time in the state’s history.
“Memories of winning a first national title for the first time ever are sweet, but I sure do not want that to distract the team. We have a mission and that mission includes winning more trophies for the state,” added Ganisan when contacted by The Borneo Post yesterday.
Ten Sarawakians represented the team that competed in Pandan Indan last week and due to the small population of Indians in Sarawak, it was not surprising that Ganisan’s team comprise of non-Indians.
Names in the team include the likes of Nurul Afiqah Yunus, Ermonita Damanto, Shereen Ubong, Yeo Hai Yong, Anastasia Simba Richard Martin, Hanisah Hassan, Effa-rin Abdullah, Natasia Nelson, Syazwani Samsudin and Givendolyn Sarum Frederick.
Kabaddi is well known to be a sport of Indian origin and Sarawak has called the sport its own.
Ganisan commented that the team will stop at nothing to get national and international recognition in kabaddi as they intend to be the new kabaddi powerhouse in the country.
“As I have said before, I have no issues in finding committed Sarawakians to represent the state team. Kabaddi is now not seen as a ‘sport for Indians only’ here in the state,” he added.
So long as his players share his vision, they are on course to realise their dreams.
In the KL tournament, Sarawak finished second in the Malaysia Open Kabaddi tournament organised in a league system, with 81 points, finishing above the national team who were second runner-ups.
Team Thailand were crowned champions after winning all their matches with 85 points.
According to Ganisan, finishing runners-up to a Thai team “is not bad” as they performed better than the target of at least a third finishing third.