TANZANIA Kabaddi Sports Association (TKSA) has planned to utilise the two-month duration of the postponement of World Cup Kabaddi Championship to drill further the two national teams selected for the finals.
The 2019 Kabaddi World Cup Competition that was earlier scheduled to be held from 2nd to 15th April in Melaka, Malaysia, has been postponed to 27th July and will climax on August 4th this year.
TKSA chairman Abdallah Nyoni told the ‘Daily News on Saturday’ in Dar es Salaam recently that preparation training is on a top gear and the twomonth period will be effectively used to prepare well both men and women’s teams.
“We are happy that this postponement has given us more time to prepare ourselves, we want to take this opportunity also to seek more support from sponsors and well-wishers, we will be grateful to receive sports kits such as jerseys, sports shoes and air tickets or players’ allowances,” he disclosed.
In one of the preparation programmes, TKSA recently organised the Demeter Insurance Kabaddi friendship event that brought together national teams members and several Dar es Salaam- based players at Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) in Dar es Salaam.
“I want to thank Demeter Insurance and ICC for their tireless support, the event went well, we need kind of the events to sharpen the players’ skills,” said Nyoni. He added that the World Kabaddi organisation is committed to promote and develop the sport at a professional level.
He said that it is because of this vision that more than 50 countries from all five continents decided to come under their auspices. According to World Kabbadi, the World Cup Kabaddi 2019 was launched as major initiative to bring together all member countries in a showcase competition. A record 34 countries – 32 in the men and 17 in the women that include Tanzania have confirmed their entry, with close to 800 participants.
World Kabaddi had appointed our affiliated body, the Malaysia Kabaddi Federation (MKF) to undertake the task of hosting the World Cup. Organisers said that MKF members had worked tirelessly to ensure that the tournament was conducted successfully.
“Despite the numerous hurdles thrown into our path, the MKF and World Kabaddi have ensured that the World Kabaddi remained a much envied event in the sporting calendar,” said World body president Ashok Das in his statement. He added: “Bringing such a huge group of players together is an unenviable task and it is strewn with its own problems.
Quite a number of members are having problems to obtain visas to attend the tournament, thus we decided to postpone the event.” He said that they did not want even a single country to miss out this tournament due to such issues and is confident that it would be resolved with the change of dates.
The World Kabaddi General Body Meeting also scheduled to be held during the World Cup, has also been postponed to be held during the new dates.
