Iran likely to host Junior Kabaddi WC

KARACHI: Junior Kabaddi World Cup is expected to be held in Iran later this summer, a senior official of Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF) revealed on Wednesday.

“Yes, Junior Kabaddi World Cup is proposed to be held in Iran in September. It will be the first time that such an event will be held in which Under-19 players would feature,” PKF secretary Mohammad Sarwar told ‘The News’ here Wednesday.

Sarwar on Wednesday flew out from here for Chinese Taipei to attend a meeting of the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) on May 14.

“In the meeting Junior World Cup (Asian style), activities calendar for the year 2019 and some discussion on new rules and other topics will be held,” said Sarwar. Sarwar said that holding events like Junior World Cup was important.

“It will help nations to build their nurseries which will in turn strengthen their kabaddi future,” said Sarwar.

In order to form a strong team for World Cup PKF plans to hold Inter-Provincial Under-19 Championship and National Under-19 Kabaddi Championship after Ramadan.

“We will soon hold such events after Eidul Fitr to form a good team for World Cup,” the official said.

He said that the PKF would be working on two teams, adding, juniors would be preparing for the global event and the seniors would be making ready for the 13th South Asian Games.

“We have requested the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and hopefully we would get camps for both the assignments,” Sarwar said.

He agreed that Pakistan would have to make full-fledged effort to revitalise the sport as several other nations have improved a lot in the sector.

“Yes Iran and South Korea have improved a lot. Definitely the nations who work harder get improved. We have already picked 30 juniors after extensive trials and I hope they are capable to become future stars.”