A building block for kabaddi
“Why you lose the chain time and again, grip her wrist tightly,” a girl from KM Bashir Govt. Primary School instructed one of her teammates from outside the court while an on-field defender of Lalbagh Govt. Model School & College challenged the raider of the opponent team 'to come in and take a point if you can.'
Such shouting among school girls at Paltan Kabadd Stadium may give an impression that these girls are matured enough to play in the Vasavi School Kabaddi tournament (Boys' & Girls'), but reality is that these girls have come to play with only three days' training and with very little knowledge about the game. However, their attitude regarding the game was really encouraging to see.
Even after losing the match by 29-31 points, the girls of KM Bashir Govt. Primary School, with tears in their eyes, frequently requested to play against their opponents again, claiming they would win the next time as they believed they were beaten unfairly.
Except for their attitude towards the game, these girls, wearing colourful jerseys provided by the Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation (BKF), looked like enjoying the game on the kabaddi mat. The student spectators did not hesitate to applaud whenever a player picked up points with a good raid or successfully confined an opponent in their own half.
Most of the girls like Mahia Moon, Jannat Tara, Sumaiya Sultana, Sumaiya Nawshin, Sanjida Akter, Mithila Akter, Sadia Afrin, Nupur Akter and Wahida Akter do not have any experience of playing kabaddi; they were really excited to play after having watched the game on television or watching it on TV dramas.
Most of the girls though could not recall any renowned female athlete of the country but a few of them could name female athletes like cricketer Salma Khatun, footballer Maria Manda and Monica Chakma while some of them nodded their heads when they were drawn attention on SA Games gold medallist weightlifter Mabia Akter Simata and swimmer Mahfuza Khatun Shila.
However, the expressions of those girls after snatching the points from the opponents were also evidence of how they were enjoying, which is believed to be the first pillar of becoming an athlete.
The return of School Kabaddi has obviously provided a good platform for both boys and girls to enjoy the sport from where the federation can think of building a strong pipeline for national kabaddi teams.
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