After Mumbai School Sports Association lashed out at the organisers of Junior Kabaddi for not including major local teams in the competition, the explanation came from their side. “It was the first time we had organised this event and we are keen on including more teams for the next leg,” said a spokesperson from Star Sports.
MSSA authorities alleged that the organiser promoted teams of elite schools, overshadowing the teams who do well at interschool competitions.
The official from Star Sports further explains, “It was an invitation-based competition where we did not know much about the team here. We are in an expanding stage right now and we want more and more kids to indulge in the game. My team has taken this suggestion into consideration but we would like to clear out that this was not a mere marketing idea. Even when PKL started, people asked us why are there no teams from Gujarat or Uttar Pradesh and now we have 12 teams which, is remarkable for a sport which has grown so much in so little time. Similarly, we will do the same for Junior KBD.”
The Junior KBD was held at National Sports Club of India on Sunday where 8 teams that include Cathedral and John Connon School, G.D. Somani Memorial School, Aditya Birla World Academy, Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Campion School, Jamnabai Narsee School, St. Peter’s School, and Dr. BabaSaheb Ambedkar Municipal School.
With families, principals, teachers and friends turning up to support the kids, every raid and tackle was met with thunderous applause, inspiring the kids to play with more confidence on the mat.
After knockout rounds, the school that emerged as the winner was Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal School who thumped Dhirubhai Ambani in a 33-7 win in the final. Ambedkar Municipal is small located in Worli which public funded along with NGOs namely. Surprisingly, it is also not a part of MSSA where the city’s sports body’s debate of Junior KBD promoting elite schools becomes a weak.
“It was a great platform for us to come out and play on these synthetic arenas. We play on muddy grounds where we get hurt many times. Playing under coaches along with proper rules was a nice experience for us. We also met our hero Shabbir (Bappu) sir, it was another great feeling after lifting the trophy,” said one of the overjoyed players from the winning side.
“KBD Juniors is our endeavour to take Kabaddi to every nook of India. The response received so far from Hyderabad, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and now with Mumbai leg coming to an end is overwhelming. We hope to inspire the millions of kids to start playing Kabaddi while we keep taking the suggestions from everyone and implementing them,” said the Star spokesperson.
