Thaindian News

Chandigarh Oct 27 (IANS) The second edition of the World Kabaddi Cup will get under way in Punjab Nov 1, with teams from 12 countries besides hosts India participating, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal announced here Thursday.

Kabaddi teams from Argentina, Pakistan, the US, Canada, Britain, Italy, Norway, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, Germany, Spain and hosts India would vie for the Rs.2 crore cup prize.

The teams finishing second and third will get a prize money of Rs.1 crore and Rs.51 lakh. All participating teams will get a reward of Rs.10 lakh each, Badal told reporters here. The first edition of the cup was held last year.

Badal said that for the first time, women World Cup Kabaddi was being organised and teams from four countries - the US, Britain, Turkmenistan and India - will feature.

The opening ceremony of the 20-day event will be held in south-west Punjab town of Bathinda while the final match and the closing ceremony would be organised at Ludhiana.

“Our effort is to give a boost to this traditional game and attract youth towards it. While matches will be played at floodlit stadiums in towns, some of them will be in rural areas of Punjab,” Badal said.

The kabaddi matches would be organised at Bathinda, Faridkot, Gurdaspur, Dhudike (Moga), Roopnagar, Sangrur, Chohla Sahib (Tarn Taran), Patiala, Kapurthala, Doda (Muktsar), Amritsar, Ferozepur, Hoshiarpur, Mansa, Jalandhar, Bathinda and Ludhiana.

In the women kabaddi cup, the winners will get a prize money of Rs.25 lakh while other teams will get Rs.15 lakh (second position) and Rs.10 lakh (3rd and 4th positions).

“It has also been decided to give tractors one each to best raider and best catcher of the final match for the men’s event,” Badal said.

He said all arrangements have been made for strict compliance of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) guidelines to prevent misuse of performance enhancing drugs by participating players.

“We will set high standards in conducting the mega event. Efforts have been made to provide all comforts to the participating teams and officials accompanying,” Punjab sports director and cup organising secretary Pargat Singh said.