Anonymous immigrant parks to sports heroes in India

New Delhi, April 6. - A group of Indian immigrants who meet on Saturday in a park in Barcelona made ​​the first "selection" Spanish for "kabaddi", a curious sport that attracts these days to tens of thousands of spectators in the northwest India.
The captain, Malkit Singh and his boys have traveled to the Punjab region of India, where his "selection" is dealing with solvency but with no luck to powerful computers in the discipline, such as Canada and Pakistan in World Cup Kabaddi- Punjab 2010.
"We played in a park near the Plaza of Spain in Barcelona. Our nationality is Indian. What happens is that the Government of Spain does not help us. In Spain, only interested in football, and I like, but my sport is kabaddi, "he told Efe the captain, contacted by telephone.
All team members "Spanish" name is Singh, as usual among the faithful of the Sikh religion, concentrated in the Punjab, and divide their residence between Barcelona, ​​Alicante and Palma de Mallorca.
His hobby, "kabaddi" is a contact sport in which, in turn, a team of five to seven members arranged in a midfield attacker tries to catch a lone opposing team, whose task is to "eliminate" with a "touch" to each of his opponents.
During your opponent's field maneuvers, the attacker must hold his breath, so it is traditional that the player constantly repeat the word "kabaddi" as a way of showing who is not breathing, before returning to their camp.
This sophisticated version of "cop-cop" is attracting Hispanic stages, according to the Punjab Cup, an average of 22,000 to 25,000 spectators, fans concitará a game that, if anything, the attention of some curious in parks in Barcelona.
And maybe because its only requirement is to have an open field, the "kabaddi" is popular especially in rural areas of Punjab, where the regional government has decided to organize the first global "youth away from drugs," according the organization.
"There are villages where 50 percent of young people use drugs, so we thought in the sport as an alternative. In addition, so we can unite our people in the diaspora, "he told Efe by telephone Punjab sports director, Pargat Singh.
According to the director, the organization was forced to contact non-professional teams in areas of the world with significant presence of Punjabi community as the "kabaddi" long tradition in parts of Asia, remains unknown in the West.
So says the organization, teams fit like a glove to areas of the world with over Punjabi immigrants, and apart from India and Pakistan come from the traditional recipients of this ethnic group, such as Canada or the U.S..
Although decent, the journey of these "Spanish for adoption" is still insufficient: the team lost to Canada 68-28 in the opening match of the championship and was later defeated by the United Kingdom, but with a tighter 37-28.
"Yes, we lost the first two games, but we had problems with the equipment. Many could not come because they have lost their jobs, "lamented the captain, who has spent three years in Spain but still has difficulties with the language.
The tournament began on day 3 and end on 12 with a cool prize of ten million rupees (about 167,000 euros) for the winner, although the team will pocket Malkit Singh 500,000 rupees for the sake of participating.
And then will return to their lives: "I like playing kabaddi, but what we really need is help getting a job," the player told Efe "Spanish" Shamsher Singh, a few hours before facing today's "kabaddistas" of Pakistan

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