GI-PKL 2025 | 'Need to Boost South Asian Participation in Global Sports': World Kabaddi President - video Dailymotion

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World Kabaddi President Ashok Das, speaking at the closing ceremony of the Global Indian Pravasi Kabaddi League (GI-PKL) at Gurugram University, shared his vision to increase South Asian participation in top international sports competitions. Das emphasized the importance of expanding opportunities for South Asian athletes. The GI-PKL, featuring elite men's and women's teams from 15 countries, is a step towards building a global Kabaddi community and inspiring greater South Asian representation on the world stage.  #Kabaddi #SouthAsianSports #AshokDas #GIPKL #GlobalKabaddi #SportsInclusion #KabaddiLeague #SouthAsianAthletes #SportsNews #GurugramUniversity #Sports   🔊 LIKE ➡ SHARE ➡ SUBSCRIBE  For More Updates:  English: https://newsable.asianetnews.com/  Hindi: https://hindi.asianetnews.com/  Malayalam: https://www.asianetnews.com/  Kannada: https://kannada.asianetnews.com/  Tamil: https://tamil.asianetnews.com/  Telugu: https://telugu.asianetnews.com/  Bengali: https://bangla.asianetnews.com/  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianetNewsa...  Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AsianetNewsEN  Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ann.newsable/  ➡ If you like our video, give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel to get the daily dosage of news, entertainment, sports and more.

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00:00So, Asianate News has come at Gurgaon University to cover the closing ceremony of GIPKL, Global

00:21Indian Pravasi Kabaddi League. I have with me Ashok Das, he is the current acting president

00:25of World Kabaddi and he is also the founder and president of England Kabaddi Association.

00:31Sir, what is this new junk that we are seeing in GIPKL? How different this league is from

00:38other leagues like PKL and several other leagues?

00:42GIPKL, this is the first kind of league in India to promote Kabaddi globally and its joint

00:49adventure between GKL and the Parvasi Bharti. The aim is Kabaddi Ki Naijang, that's the motto,

00:57that's the logo. Kabaddi Ki Naijang means a new revolution in Kabaddi. So, we are bringing

01:03it to new revolution in Kabaddi which has never happened before. You will see we are using

01:08this same pitch for the men's and the women's, it's never happened before. And we are giving

01:15same price money for the women's and men's in the final, it's never happened before. Even

01:20the trophy because we believe there is an agenda between men's and women's, right? And this

01:26force to go to globally, so we need the players from around the world. And this league you will

01:34see each team, men's and women's, they are two players from the abroad, like many countries,

01:40many different countries. So, what is the aim? They can learn from them, from the

01:45experienced people, they can enjoy, they can get the experience and go back and develop

01:50Kabaddi in their own region, in their own country. Okay. Other thing, the aim, the Indian

01:57culture. Okay. If you living in England or living in the USA and you've been to India once

02:04and go to your village, spend a few days and go back, you don't know the culture because

02:09there's a many states and many reasons in India. So this way, from 20 days, they're talking

02:15to each other, they're asking their tradition, they're asking their traditional food, they're

02:21asking about India because what we heard back home, whatever we seen on the TV from BBC, India

02:29is this, India is that. But this way, actually, they can take a real message. What is the actually

02:35India? It's incredible India through this Kabaddi. Kabaddi bounding, I think it's Kabaddi bounding

02:42to the global, right? This beautiful sports Kabaddi, where you don't need any equipment. There's

02:48a very few sports in this country. And this is why the foreign countries, the people are adopting

02:55these sports and it's fast growing sports on the earth. We just delivered the first World

03:00Cup outside of Asia three weeks ago in England, in my own city, where I think more than 25 million

03:11people watch across the world in seven countries. So you talked about three weeks ago, you organized

03:17this World Cup in England. It was your dream and it did come true. So I want to know about

03:23this thing like we are trying to take Kabaddi to a global scale. And this is our indigenous

03:29game. We are very proud of it. And we are taking it to the next level. But you have worked

03:34on ground to bring together these teams in World Cup. How difficult or should I say how

03:39easier it was for you to, you know, get together all of these teams and organize the World Cup?

03:45It is a difficult outside India because India is youth. There's a quota and the players when

03:52they go on a national level. So they've been employed by the private sector, government sector.

03:58So they aim just to play Kabaddi and they will get the wages. And also coaches outside India,

04:06where we act in Western country, it's not like that. There's no quota for the sports person

04:11to get in a sports job and for the coaches. Whatever we do over there, we spend our own

04:17money. This is a challenge for us. And it's so hard to get a player because a player, every

04:23player, every sector, they have to work. The people working here as well. But the difference

04:30is outside, outside India, we, the player and I, we have to work and then we have to go for

04:39the training. So this is hard to get a player to get a continuous training and the build up a team.

04:46So this is the big challenge. And the World Cup is what's more challenge because the sponsors. And

04:52then again, this is not the game. Like in India, this is the Indian sport. The people can understand,

04:58people know the value of the sports, but outside in Western country is new sports. It was a challenge,

05:03but we went through with the help of the God and blessing, I could say, and the help from the,

05:09this petty power, they sponsor us. And then the government is called Western Berlin Growth Company

05:15and the legacy fund from the government, the Commonwealth game. So this is the help us to promote

05:21because they said the South Asian, like we have a less into the sports. They want more South Asian into

05:27the sports. If you see Olympic chart, if you see the Commonwealth chart, there's a very handful,

05:33Asian taking part and role model back home. So this is the reason the government investing into this

05:39governing. This was my dream. When I started 30 years ago, one day I can have a World Cup. So it was

05:45hard to go country to country, country to country to build up country, build up the team, build up the

05:51federation. But when you have a belief and you have a passion, so I think that God bless you as well.

05:58And this is not only me, it's help. There's many helping hand behind this and we deliver successful

06:05first ever World Cup outside Asia. That is beautiful that we were able to pull that off. But another

06:11vision, another milestone that we're looking at is to, you know, play in Olympics. How far this is,

06:17you think? Yeah, this is a dream. I think every Kabaddi lover, that's their dream. So when Kabaddi

06:22can go to the Olympics. We need a sport. We need a sport from our Indian government. Like American,

06:28they go American football. They invest in American government. They invest into the sports and that's

06:36why you will see there's a rugby and there's a football and the baseball because they invest in it.

06:41But in Kabaddi, I don't see the Indian government. They invest into the Kabaddi outside India.

06:47I'm proud because I love this sport, right? And I got the sport from my family and invest my own money,

06:54my own time. It's my passion. But if government help all their consulate journal outside India,

07:03it will be a different picture. But hopefully when 2036 Olympics, hopefully India will win this bid

07:12and then host the Olympics, then the Kabaddi will be part of the Olympics.

07:16Great. Final question from my side. What message do you have for young Kabaddi players

07:20or for anyone who is in sports and want to and aspire to become a Kabaddi player and make a global

07:26name for themselves? Yeah, India is huge and there's a, I don't know how many hundred thousand

07:30players. They have a dream to become a national player. They can play for an Asian game. They can play for

07:35World Cup and it's hard. Sometimes you are deserving to get in a team, but you can't get a place into the

07:44team because there are many huddled players in India. But my message is never give up. Never give up.

07:49Believe yourself. Keep going. One day you will succeed. As myself, I played Kabaddi in India, in Punjab

07:57and the carried dream. One day I will deliver the World Cup. I did it because this is a hell from God.

08:03Never give up. Keep carrying on. Keep playing Kabaddi. Love Kabaddi. Thank you so much. So here it was

08:11Mr. Das with us. Thank you so much Mr. Das for speaking with us. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thank you.

GI-PKL 2025 | 'Need to Boost South Asian Participation in Global Sports': World Kabaddi President

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