Pakistan men & women Kabaddi teams make impressive start

Roopnagar : Pakistan’s men and women kabaddi teams opened their Kabaddi World Cup campaign with massive victories at Nehru Stadium, Roopnagar on Tuesday. Director General Sports Punjab Usman Anwar, in a telephonic talk, congratulated both the teams on their imposing victories.

Pakistan women squad pulverized their opponents from Mexico by a big margin of 45-20 in the first encounter of the day. Skipper Madiha Lateef, Saira Bano and Neelum Riaz were in prolific form. They kept their rivals under pressure right from the beginning of the match through their dominant performance.

Shafiq Chishti’s men also made a memorable beginning to the Kabaddi World Cup when they demolished Denmark by an even bigger margin of 69-24 at the same venue. Raiders Akmal Shahzad Dogar, Mohammad Khan and Rehman Ishtiaq demonstrated wonderful Kabaddi skills. Stopper Ramazan Jani also grabbed several points for his team with his marvelous performance. The overwhelming Pakistan team subdued their relatively inexperienced rivals at will and didn’t give them any space to settle down.

Director General Sports Punjab Usman Anwar, in his telephonic chat with Madeeha Lateef and Shafiq Chishti, praised the performance of all the male and female players in their opening matches. He urged both the skippers to extend their run of victories in the showpiece event and win the trophy for the sports-loving nation. “The mammoth performance from our Kabaddi teams is an encouraging performance for the entire nation. He said that Pakistan teams lived up to the expectations. “It’s an appropriate style to launch a tournament like World Cup. We are quite determined that our teams will clinch World Cup trophy this time,” he added.

Later, Madiha Lateef, in her media talk said that Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and Director General Sports Punjab Usman Anwar had a major role in our tremendous performance in Kabaddi World Cup. “DG SBP Usman Anwar provided us top class facilities at the training camp. Our girls are in good shape to face tougher teams in the next matches of grand event,” she continued.

Men’s skipper Shafiq Chishti expressed his satisfaction on the performance of his team. “It’s our first appearance in the 2014 World Cup and we will continue our sequence of crushing performance in the upcoming encounters of the grand tourney,” Chishti resolved.

In their next encounter, Pakistan women team will play England at AS College Stadium, Khanna on December 10 (today) while Pakistan’s male team will take on England on December 11 (tomorrow) at Sports Stadium, Chohala Sahib, Tarn Taran.