History of Kabaddi Canada Cup

Metro Punjabi Sports Club founded in the early 1970’s in the Greater Toronto Area sensed that Kabaddi was clearly missing something. A sport that spanned across the globe in Punjabi communities had been predominately viewed as something played at a professional level in India and England. Punjabi communities of a sizable number around the world would gather funds to hold sports festivals that including an amateur exhibition of kabaddi much to the delight of expatriate Punjabis. As the communities started to grow larger so did the number of these non-profit organized sports festivals. The highlight of these festivals from a crowd participation perspective would always be kabaddi.

Metro Punjabi Sports Club widely known to the Greater Toronto Punjabi Community in the 70’s 80’s and early 90’s as Rexdale Kabaddi Club had a vision to elevate kabaddi to an international level. It was in 1990 when Mr. Sarwan Singh Bal during his visit to Canada, shared this idea of International tournament during in a interview on then popular Radio show Ankhila Punjab. In December 1990, on the occasion of Christmas party hosted by Rexdale Kabaddi Club, Mr. Sukhminder Singh Hansra told audience of the views of Mr. Sarvan Singh Bal. He urged everyone in the room to host a world cup. In sharp and encouraging tone, Mr. Hansra motivated everyone to take this daring step to promote KABADDI on International Level.

1991, the Rexdale Kabaddi Club changed it's name to Metro Punjabi Sports Club of Canada, gathered their resources and relied on the support of the business community to put together the very first international kabaddi tournament in the world, outside of India. The Punjabi community of Toronto had never imagined that kabaddi would evolve to become a highly competitive and professional sport in Canada and for that matter around the world.

There were many obstacles to overcome for Metro Punjabi Sports Club in introducing an international level exposure to the game. Through community networking, support of the Indo- Canadian business community, kabaddi organizers around the world and political leaders; Metro Punjabi Sports Club was successful in creating a legacy for hosting international scale kabaddi tournaments in Toronto.

The first event of Kabaddi Canada Cup on Saturday August 10th 1991was covered by wide Mainstream Media including, CTV, CBC and McLean Magazine.

In 1991, there were teams from Canada East (Ontario), Canada West (British Columbia), India, England, Scotland and USA. The opening ceremony was done in grand style and mocked a typical official sporting event with the national anthem being played, formal team introductions, ribbon cutting ceremony to name a few. The fans loved every minute of the 8 hour event day. Children were entertained by clowns and a Bhangra group while parents were exposed to some of the greatest kabaddi talent around the world. Unfortunately, this international event could not be conducted under amateur sports guidelines as some countries required the acquisition of players from India to enter an official team. India being the heartland of kabaddi talent was a rich pool to pick from for businessmen in countries like USA and England to enter a team. Hence, with the introduction of paid performance, the country that contributed the most towards recruiting paid talent had the greatest chance to win. At the end of the day, USA and their business community brought the best players and was the winning team of Kabaddi Canada Cup, 1991. The final match was a thrilling exhibition between the paid Indian stars of USA and the home bread unpaid team representing India. The fans being Indian expatriates were cheering on India in an extremely close final match. There was so much excitement in the air that they showered a relatively unknown player from India, Angrez Singh (Billa from Faridkot) for his relentless attacks and earning of points against a world class stop line from USA.

The precedent was set by Metro Punjabi Sports Club through the Kabaddi Canada Cup to bring a rural sport from Punjab to become a high stake professional sport- providing many poor athletes from India an opportunity to be overnight celebrities and become wealthy. Hundreds of players have Metro Punjabi Sports Club to thank for enabling them to be wealthy sports star in India and in the global Indian communities.

Metro Punjabi Sports Club held two more consecutive Kabaddi Cups in 1992 and 1993. Both times USA took the cup. In 1999, after many years of other Ontario-based kabaddi clubs hosting events; Metro Punjabi Sports Club was given the opportunity by the Ontario Kabaddi Federation to host the Kabaddi Canada Cup. Once again, the members and volunteers of this club set a new stage for kabaddi. For the first time, Judo mats were used to play on an indoor service. These mats provided much better support and balance without injury than previously held indoor kabaddi tournaments that were played on carpet foam surfaces. Unlike ever before, the club introduced each player with a brief bio individually for the benefit of the fans. A time clock highlighting seconds left per raid increased the level of excitement for fans. A mixture of pumping music bits with live color commentary was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Team Canada beat England convincingly in the 1999 finals.

Metro Punjabi Sports Club will be hosting its fifth international scale Kabaddi Canada Cup on August 5, 2006 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The organizing committee will be introducing new concepts that have never been seen before by kabaddi players, organizers and fans. It’s time to take kabaddi up to yet another stage in its development and who better than the pioneers - Metro Punjabi Sports Club to do it!