Anup Kumar to lead India in Kabaddi World Cup

Former India skipper Kapil Dev unveiled the blue jersey of the Indian kabaddi team and the 1983 World Cup winning captain gave the 14-member squad led by Anup Kumar some tips in a function here on Tuesday.

Manjeet Chillar will be the vice-captain of the team for the tournament that is set to commence on October 7 in Ahmedabad featuring 12 teams with the final on September 22. Countries taking part are Iran, South Korea, Bangladesh, USA, England, Australia, Poland, Thailand, Japan, Argentina and Kenya. Balwan Singh is the head coach of the squad.

A notable exception from the top kabaddi playing nations is Pakistan. But it wasn’t clear that whether Pakistan opted out of the tournament or the organisers didn’t invite them due to prevailing situation between the two neighbours.

A question directed to the organisers whether Pakistan had not been invited irked Dev who otherwise seemed in high spirits recalling his kabaddi days in school. “If you are a Hindustani you should not ask the question at all. Is it the time to ask this question,” he fumed.

However Dev was quick to add that the matter should be left to the government.

Squad: Anup Kumar (capt), Manjeet Chillar (vice-capt), Ajay Thakur, Deepak Hooda, Dharmaraj Cheralathan, Jasvir Singh, Kiran Parmar, Mohit Chillar, Nitin Tomar, Pardeep Narwal, Rahul Chaudhari, Sandeep Narwal, Surender Nada and Surjeet.