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Collin Matiza Sports Editor
TENDAI Jambwa, who coaches the ancient Indian contact sport of kabaddi in Zimbabwe, has been selected to undergo a three-month intensive coaching course in India from mid-February to the end of April this year.

Kabaddi is a contact team sport played between two teams of seven players and the object of the game is for a single player on offence, referred to as a “raider”, to run into the opposing team’s half of a court, tag out as many of their defenders as possible and return to their own half of the court, all without being tackled by the defenders, and in a single breath.

Points are scored for each player tagged by the raider, while the opposing team earns a point for stopping the raider.  Players are taken out of the game if they are tagged or tackled, but can be “revived” for each point scored by their team from a tag or tackle.

The sport is popular in the Indian subcontinent and other surrounding Asian countries.

Although accounts of kabaddi appear in the histories of both ancient India and ancient Sistan, the game was popularised as a competitive sport in the 20th century by India; it is the state game of the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. It is also the national sport of Bangladesh.

Jambwa is now expected to leave the country mid-next month to hone his coaching skills in the sport in India for three months.

Gilbert Makowah of Kabaddi Zimbabwe, said yesterday that after attending the three-month intensive coaching course in India, Jambwa would become a full-time coach in Zimbabwe and his main task would be to impart his acquired skills to all the 10 provinces in this country “which is a very tall order to achieve”.