Lahore Lions departs for London

Lahore: Babar Waseem Gujjar-led Sports Board Punjab’s Lahore Lions kabaddi team flew to London on Saturday morning to participate in the World Kabaddi League (WKL) tournament. Advocate Malik Ishrat and Naseer Yousaf Vohra, Senior Vice-President Punjab Kabaddi Association saw off the SBP team at the National Hockey Stadium.

The Lahore Lions kabaddi team will play its first match against Canada’s Vancouver Lions after the inauguration of World Kabaddi League in the British. All the members of national kabaddi team were quite determined about their performance in the grand kabaddi event of the world.

Lahore Lions team manager Waqas Akbar told the media that his boys were in good shape and definitely they will offer reasonable performance in the 8-team tournament. “Our coaches have trained our team in a thorough professional manner keeping in view the requirements of modern-day kabbadi and that’s why we are expecting some enthralling performance from our boys,” he added.

Following are the members of touring team: Babar Waseem Gujjar (captain), Lala Ubaid Ullah, Shafiq Chishti, Shahzad Dogar, Rana Naeem, Khalid Mehar, Shabbir Butt, Rehman Ishtiaq alias Heera Butt, Saif Ullah, M Ramzan, Ali Lambi Pindiya, Matloob Ali, Mohsin Wahla, Arshad Mehmood, Waqas Raheem, Naeem Tahir Sindhu and Aslam Dogar.

Meanwhile, a grand and colourful opening ceremony of World Kabaddi League was organized in London on Saturday to launch the mega event. According to information made available here, all the participating teams attended the opening ceremony. The contesting kabaddi players of all the eight teams also took part in the bus parade in London City.

The opening ceremony was also attended by President World Kabaddi League Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also Deputy Chief Minister Indian Punjab.