Uganda starting to make a name for itself in kabaddi

Chennai

But, Africa could well increase its presence on the world kabaddi stage in the coming years as Uganda is starting to make a name for itself. Despite getting introduced to the sport only a couple of years back, Uganda finished second to host Kenya at the Africa Cup 2019.

“We got to know about the game only in early 2018 when Kenya Kabaddi Association (KKA) president Laventa Oguta visited us along with the men’s national team. Kenya players taught us the basics of the sport and in December 2018, we formed our men’s and women’s teams,” said Kabaddi Federation of Uganda (KFU) secretary Edgar Mujuni.

“For us to improve, we have also produced a couple of senior coaches – Ephraim Makubuya and John Nsibambi – by providing them manuals, which we got from India. We also do a lot of research on the game and that has helped us come this far,” he added. Not short of ambitions, KFU has a robust system in place, engaging athletes from various age groups.

Presently, Uganda has national teams in three different categories for both men and women – Senior, Under-20 and Under-14. The selectors have a good pool of players to pick from, with 87 men and 69 women currently involved in the senior set-up. Coming under the youth structure (U-20) are 156 boys and 168 girls, from secondary schools.

A total of 149 kids (boys and girls included) from primary schools train under KFU as part of its ‘Kabaddi Development’ project. To add to this, Uganda is home to 40 coaches and 23 match officials.

Despite churning out appreciable numbers, Mujuni said the general public has not yet completely accepted kabaddi as a sport in Uganda.

“A lot of kabaddi players come from a football background. Because of the way in which we have packaged the game, people are starting to show some interest. We have a strategic plan and hope to take kabaddi to institutions in 2021,” explained Mujuni, a top official of KFU, which has so far organised East Africa Kabaddi Championships for Men and Women.

With kabaddi turning into a modern sport in recent years, a playing mat has become mandatory. However, Uganda owns none. But even that hasn’t stopped the federation from conducting competitions.

“As we don’t have a single kabaddi mat, we join various mats and make a playing surface. We even encourage our players to compete on grass. If we receive more support from the government, we will be able to popularise kabaddi even better.”

At present, the sport is largely played in five districts – Kampala, Wakiso, Luwero, Masindi and Pallisa. But, KFU is confident of making kabaddi one of the most followed sports in Uganda although odds are stacked against it.