The world had its eyes glued to the TransStadia Arena for throughout October as the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup saw a lot of hype and hoopla around the event. The final face off between India and Iran saw the host country's performance roar with Ajay Thakur planning a memorable win against a spirited Iran.
A terrific display of raiding, Thakur was outwitted by rival skipper Meraj Sheykh's versatile display in the first half of the game. However, India took charge of the final in the second half as Thakur's raiding skills came in handy and earned super raid points. Winning a hand-touch point against Sheykh, Thakur helped India take the lead for the second time in the match, later proceeding to dominate and win 38-29. The Indian team's second most successful raider Pardeep Narwal remained off with his performance, while substitute Nitin Tomar rose to the occasion, and won super raid points sending out Sheykh and Fazel Atrachali at the peak point of the game. This was the third clash between India and Iran in a World Cup final. The previous two were in 2004 and 2007 in Mumbai, with India winning both times.
The Kabaddi World Cup saw as much footage as given to Cricket. Held at an indigenously made stadium in Ahmedabad, the competition saw participation from various foreign teams. All the teams however different, spoke the same language- one taught by desi Indian coaches delegated by the International Kabaddi Federation. The game with its origin in the country, has found support only in the recent years. This year, teams from Australia, Iran, England, South Korea, USA, Poland and England marked its presence with Iran making it to the end for a showdown with India.
All the teams were trained and taught by Indian or Indian-origin coaches.
Australia : Navneet Gautam and Srinivas Reddy
Iran : KC Suthar
England : Ashok Das
Poland : Harwinder Singh and K Ganesh
South Korea : Jaiveer Sharma
USA : Mohinder Singh Sidhu
Virender Sehwag pokes Piers Morgan
Reigniting the Twitter battle, cricketer Virender Sehwag fired a shot at British journalist Piers Morgan after India's victory against Iran. "India invented Kabaddi & r World Champs for 8th time. Elsewhere some country invented Cricket & r yet only good in correcting typos," Viru said in tweet prompting the latter. The tweet was in reference to Morgan correcting his grammar when India thrashed England in the Kabaddi World Cup.
"England loose in a World Cup again. Only the sport changes. This time it's Kabaddi. India thrash them 69-18. All the best for semis," Sehwag had tweeted to which, Morgan promptly pointed out his mistake in using the word "loose" instead of lose.
The Twitter battle between the two originally began from when Morgan mocked India celebrating its medal turnover in the Olympics.
