Juniors seek gold in World Kabaddi

Although a final berth at the Asian level has turned into a distant dream for Bangladesh senior kabaddi team, their junior counterparts have kept their sights locked on the ultimate prize in the fast-approaching 2nd Junior World Kabaddi Championship, scheduled to take place in Iran from February 26 to March 4.

The boys in red and green are scheduled to depart for Iran tonight.

"Our target is to bring gold home as we won bronze last time," captain Ujjapan Chakma told reporters yesterday.

"I had no hope when I saw this group of guys. The boys, however, had been prepared step-by-step by the Indian coach. We fought against our national B team on level terms in warm-up matches, and even beat them once," added the Bangladesh captain, the only member who played the inaugural edition in 2019 where Bangladesh finished behind hosts Iran and runners-up Kenya to bag a bronze.

Coach Lingampally Srinivas Reddy said, "I brought them up with the latest approach to kabaddi. The boys are smart and quick learners and give 100 per cent in training. They want to prove themselves and... also know that if they win medals, they will get jobs in Army, Police and other service teams."

Bangladesh and 15 other teams, split into four groups, will play the round-robin fixtures before the top two teams advance to the quarterfinals.