The Annual Kabaddi Tournament held on May 1 at Papatoetoe Sports Centre was an event to remember. For the first time in New Zealand, a Kabaddi tornament was held at this newly constructed premise. This event was organised by Desh Punjab Sports and Cultural Club in association with Papatoetoe Kabaddi Club Inc and ASB Bank.
In spite of the unfavourable weather, the event was attended by community leaders and public from all communities. There was a gathering of around 600 people at the event, making it a huge success.
The Tournament was held at the newly opened Papatoetoe Sports Centre, which has state of the art equipment and balcony where all the VIPs sat and enjoyed food and drinks along with a great view of the games.
The Event was witnessed by people from different ethnic communities and people from all age groups.
Teams from all over New Zealand participated in Kabaddi, Soccer and Volleyball matches
The results of the games are as follows: Kabaddi – Kalgidhar Team were named the champions with the hosting team from Desh Punajb Sports taking the runners up trophy. Under 20 Kabaddi – Winners awarded were Desh Punjab team and runners up were Papamoa Kabaddi team.
Soccer- Auckland Lions were the winners and Punjabi Sath team scored the second position.
Volleyball- Black Spikes came out as Champions and Aims team was the runners up.
Desh Punajb Sports club thanksed sponsors for their support with a special thanks to Dev Dhingra, Business Development Manager, ASB Bank and Andrew Brookland, General Manager, Papatoetoe Sports Centre who supported the event and also spent time to make the event a great success.
The event was made special with the presence of chief guests - Ross Robertson(MP), Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi(MP), Gary Troup, John Mc Cain, Prithi Pal Singh Basra, Mohanpal Bath along with other prominent community leaders.
Desh Punjab Sports and Cultural club visions to make Kabaddi, one of the local games in New Zealand. Kabaddi is the state game of Punjab, a northern state of India.
The association hopes to seek interest from other community groups in NZ and create a team for Kabaddi with players with various ethnicities.
This event marks the association’s initiative to promote Kabaddi as a local sport in NZ. For further inquiries, please contact Resham Singh , President or Iqbal Singh, Secretary, Desh Punjab.
