Back in 2012 when India hosted the circle style Kabaddi World Cup in Punjab, Malaysia finished runners-up in the women’s competition.
An outstanding result considering Malaysians hardly play the circle style kabaddi. Remarkable because none of the players in the team were even Malaysian citizens nor was the team selected by the either of the two registered national kabaddi associations in Malaysia.
The Indian organisers simply allowed a team of Indian players masquerading as Malaysians to play without any verification. Neither did they bother about taking any action even after the matter came to light.
The so-called Malaysian women’s team at the championship was made up of mainly Indian citizens who were working or studying or just visiting Malaysia.
The so-called Malaysian team led by an official from Punjab had forged a letterhead of a non-existent kabaddi association in Malaysia to enter the team for the tournament.
This year the World Cup is being held in Pakistan and it looks like things have not changed at all.
This time around it would be a fake Indian team that would be taking part at the tournament. To compound to the whole fiasco, it is now revealed that 60 players from the Indian state of Punjab have made the trip to Pakistan and would be playing under the national colours of other participating teams.
A top ranking kabaddi official from Australia, also confirmed that none of the players in the so-called Australian team are from the country but were apparently from India.
The Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF) had earlier confirmed that the tournament would see the participation of teams from Pakistan, India, Australia, UK, Canada. German, Iran and Kenya. Kenya did not turn up for the tournament as advertised.
With each team comprising of 15 players, it now looks like that at least three of these teams would also be fake teams.
The eight-day tournament was inaugurated yesterday and offers prize money of ten million Pakistan rupees to the winners.
The tournament is organised by the PKF, who are affiliated with the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF). IKF’s affiliated body in India is the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) and they have denied that they have sanctioned any Indian teams to the tournament.
India has a number of other registered national kabaddi bodies in India but they are not affiliated with the IKF and cannot take part in a rival body’s event.
The 60 players from India reached Lahore on Saturday via the Wagah crossing. The Indian Sports Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) have also stated that no official permission had been given to any team to participate in the event in Pakistan.
This is only the beginning of the deceit.
The AKFI is currently under government appointed administrator after the organisation was suspended and its president Dr Mridul Bhadauri barred from holding the post together with the former president Janardhan Singh Gehlot.
Gehlot had installed Mridul, who also happens to be his wife, as the new president after he was barred from holding the post as specified by the term limitation in the Indian Sports Code.
Following a court litigation, the duo were found to have acted in ultra-vires of the constitution and the Sports Code. The AKFI is currently managed by Justice (Retd) SP Garg, who has been entrusted to call for a new election.
If Garg is not aware of any clearance given for the team and the other bodies in India having no knowledge of it either, with whom did the PKF communicate in India for its participation?
The Punjab State Kabaddi Association, who have apparently sent the players, now claim that the players are not representing the country but are playing as an “individual unit”
The PKF cannot claim ignorance as their secretary Muhammad Sarwar is also the secretary of the Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF), which is affiliated with the AKF.
Not when he was also extensively quoted by the Pakistani media that the World Cup was a battle for supremacy between Pakistan and India.
“You know the rest of the teams are not that good in circle style kabaddi. Even Iran is also not solid in this game and the actual fight will be between Pakistan and India,” Sarwar had said following Pakistan’s opening win over Canada, assuming it was in fact Canada, 64-24 yesterday.
There is more to this comical yet intriguing story.
The AKFI is still without a duly elected committee and no new date for the elections has yet to be set after almost a year.
Gehlot is now actively campaigning for his son to be elected as the new president when the AKFI election is finally called.
That is only one part of the whole scenario. Guess who is the president of the AKF and the IKF, which had sanctioned the tournament in Pakistan?
Yes, it is none other than Gehlot himself. Just how a sports administrator suspended in his own country can continue to legitimately hold positions at the international level confounds logic.
Sarwar himself is also on the blacklist of the Indian authorities and has not stepped into India for several years now.
The irony of the whole fiasco is that the IKF and the AKF tried to stop the national style World Cup Kabaddi 2019 (WCK 2019) held in Melaka last year. The WCK 2019 was hosted by the Malaysia Kabaddi Federation (MKF) under the auspices of its governing body the World Kabaddi.
Sarwar had in fact not only written to the Malaysian Sports Ministry, the Sports Commissioner, the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) and the National Sports Council (NSC) but also made a trip to Malaysia in an attempt to stop the WCK 2019.
The WCK 2019 was conducted successfully with the Indian teams selected by the New Kabaddi Federation, winning both the men’s and women’s crown.
Now just six months after the failed attempt to sabotage a rival event, the IKF and the AKF are trying to legitimize perhaps a completely phony tournament of their own.
To top it all, the Pakistan Amateur Circle Kabaddi Federation (PACKF), who are not part of the ongoing tournament, have filed a writ petition against the organisers and the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) in the Lahore High Court for the alleged scam.
The High Court has started its inquiry into the matter and has directed the PSB president to furnish all records by March 12.
The circle of farce continues.