Employment, fame & novelty: How the Pro Kabaddi League is providing a new lease of life in Kenya

Back in October 2016, a young Kenyan team under skipper David Mosambayi flew down to Ahmedabad for their first taste of international kabaddi, as part of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup. Grouped alongside Asian heavyweights such as Iran and Thailand among others, cruising through to the knockouts of the tournament was always going to be a challenge for the Kenyan team, with the sport only in its nascent stages back in the country.

Kenya, though, put up an exhilarating display of their skills on the mat. The Mosambayi-led side first beat Poland 54-48 and then gave Iran quite a scare, losing only by five points when it was expected that the Meraj Sheykh-led side would steamroll their African opponents.

Although Kenya failed to progress to the knockouts of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup, their aggressive style of play meant a lot of people stood up and took notice of the talent and potential that defined their campaign.

A few months later, in the Pro Kabaddi season 5 player auction, three Kenyan players - skipper David Mosambayi (Puneri Paltan), Simon Kibura and Felix Onyango (both Patna Pirates) - etched their name in the history books as the first set of African players to earn contracts in the PKL.

Fast forward to many years later, the PKL has featured many more exciting young Kenyan stars who have all thrilled audiences with their quick moves on the mat. Names such as James Kamweti, Daniel Odhiambo and Victor Obiero are well known even in the Indian kabaddi circles, underlining the influence that PKL has had even on the African contingent.

While it is true that kabaddi is yet to match the popular scales of rugby and football in Kenya, the sport's introduction at schools and universities is playing a role in attracting youngsters to take it up and conjure dreams of playing in Pro Kabaddi.

For a sport that had little to no history in Kenya before 2014, in about eight years time, the Pro Kabaddi League has given few of the players tons of recognition, apart from paying their bills and affording them a life of relative comfort.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Kenya's PKL stars James Kamweti (UP Yoddhas) and Daniel Odhiambo (Patna Pirates) shed some light on the struggles of promoting kabaddi in their country, how Pro Kabaddi is helping spread the word and more. Full excerpts below -

Q. How were you introduced to kabaddi, and what feature of the sport influenced you to take it up as a potential career option?

James: I started playing kabaddi in 2018, when I was in school. I remember meeting the president of our kabaddi federation, madame Laventer Oguta, who asked me if I wanted to try kabaddi. She asked me what I do, I told her I am a model and I play volleyball, and when she asked me about kabaddi I wasn't too sure because I had never heard or seen the sport before.

She invited me to attend the training sessions a couple of times, even called me quite a few times at 5.30 AM in the morning but I would always tell her I had some class to attend. She kept trying and after two weeks, I finally went for the training session and I was shocked to see so many people already there, and I was late! In my first try I got a lot of points, she told me I was a good player and so I picked up the game.

Daniel: I first joined kabaddi in late 2016. When I was in Nairobi, I happened to meet madame Laventer, she asked me if I could join the kabaddi team. Back then I was playing football, so I looked like someone who could be good at kabaddi. I was very open to it, I wanted to go and try what it was so I joined the training session.

Initially when she approached me I thought she was joking because I had never seen the sport before, but it looked very interesting and I found it extremely interesting when I played it.

Q. Was it hard to convince your family about you taking up kabaddi, given the lack of popularity of the sport in Kenya?

James: Kabaddi in Kenya is a new sport, so I had to explain it to my parents quite a lot. They asked me if this was similar to football or rugby, and I said no. Then they asked me, "how do you play sports without a ball?", so I explained the rules. Convincing my mother was easy, she understood what the sport was and how much I enjoyed it, but convincing my father was very difficult.

He wanted me to be a renowned lawyer, and that is the case even now, but I had to be tough-headed to get where I wanted to be and so I didn't listen to my father, and that created a bit of chaos.

Daniel: For me, it wasn't that tough. Kabaddi is still a young sport, it has a lot of opportunities, anyone can come and play the sport in Kenya. For us, it's a trial and error process and personally, I just had to convince my mother. She asked me what kabaddi was all about and so I had to explain why I had a lot of interest in it.

It took me almost a year to convince them, but the process was hard. I used to go and train and nothing good was coming from it for a while. It was a tough process but now it's good and settled.

Q. What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced of pursuing kabaddi as a career option in Kenya?

James: Personally for me, since I am also a lawyer, playing kabaddi and being a lawyer is hard to juggle. The legal side requires a lot of time and effort, so I had to make a conscious decision to put one aside and concentrate on the other. I picked kabaddi over law.

The main problem in Kenya is unemployment. You might have a masters or PhD degree, but you might not have a job. It's really hard to pick kabaddi as a full-time option because it doesn't pay. If you pick kabaddi as a career option right now, you will die of hunger. One has to go to work and squeeze some time for kabaddi - most of us play kabaddi from 6 AM to 7/8 AM and go to work after that.

I consider Pro Kabaddi to be my top priority and it has created a massive opportunity for me which is paying me well. PKL has helped me get capital for a business I am running back in Kenya also. I have a small business of white meat which is fish & chicken that I started with my PKL 8 salary. I am hoping that with the money I make from PKL 9, it can do a lot better on the business front.

Daniel: The biggest issue I would say for the whole team is we just train all year, but don't play tournaments. There are so many tournaments in India and players get exposure. Also, playing kabaddi in Kenya does not pay your bills, so most of us play for a few hours in the morning and go back to our regular jobs or education.

I am 21 years old and still in school. Another issue is that our friends and family cannot watch Pro Kabaddi live in Kenya, so they don't understand where I am or what I am actually doing. Even if I play, they can't watch me live and they only watch the highlights online.

Q. What are your thoughts on how kabaddi is developing in Kenya? How have you PKL stars helped improve the sport's presence in the country?

James: Kabaddi is not played a lot in Kenya, but we are trying to spread the game. We have 47 counties, so we go there and look for people who can play. We also go to schools to spread the game - it has been introduced in the syllabus. Earlier it was only about learning subjects theoritically but now there are extra curiccular activities, kabaddi is one of them. Small kids now know the game through the books, so it is our job to actualise it and give them the physical touch of the sport.

Mainly, we have to squeeze time, leave everything you are doing and ask permission from the school management. Not everyone is welcoming because they don't know about the game, so convincing takes time. Teaching young children is easier since they have it in their syllabus now, and getting the university guys to come and play is harder. Also, universities look into their pockets and they are not willing to spend a lot of money, so that's an additional barrier we need to overcome.

Daniel: Kabaddi in Kenya started properly only in 2014. I joined after the 2016 World Cup so from then till date we have tried popularizing it. We have a lot of counties and so to take it to all of them is quite a task, but we are trying.

Apart from going to schools and universities to educate youngsters about the game, we also air few of our matches on TV and go live on Facebook to gather audiences. In India, kabaddi is absolutely huge. In Kenya, football and rugby is famous but I believe in the coming days or months, kabaddi will be big.

Kenya is improving a lot in kabaddi and one day when we get to the top, people will love it. When we got to the top in rugby, everyone wanted to join and I hope it will be the same with kabaddi too. It has improved a lot since 2016, now the sport is in every city.

We work hard to improve the game, it is us players who coach the youngsters joining in, if not us then there is no one else. Some people like it, some don't. We have formed many teams but some of them don't exist now because people have left. I think the biggest achievement will be to get crowds, that's when the popularity will increase.

Q. How about adapting to the Indian culture, be it communicating primarily in Hindi or eating the food here? Was that much of a challenge?

James: This is my second PKL season and I am not finding it as hard as it was in my previous outing here. Last season, the food was a problem because it was suddenly very spicy but now I eat everything.

I am learning new things about the culture, I don't find it tough to mingle. We visit the temple daily, have poojas on Tuesdays, so it is very interesting for me. The problem I would say is the language barrier. Unfortunately, my teammates cannot tell me stories and I cannot share mine because of the language problem.

But yes, some of my UP teammates like Nehal (Desai), Nitin Tomar, Ratan (Kumar) and even Surender Gill help me as translators, so overall the communication issue isn't too big.

Daniel: Firstly, being in India is great and exploring the country is a lot of fun. The only problem is that the food is a little spicy for me too! (laughs). I am always afraid of trying new food because of the spice, so I stick to what I am used to like plain rice with some dal, probably some tandoori roti. I like chicken but almost all types are spicy for me, so I try little amounts to figure out the spice. If it is spicy, I have to tag that along with some cold milk!

The language barrier is a problem, for sure. It's very hard to be under the same roof as someone who cannot speak your language. Luckily for me, my roommate is Shadlou (Mohammadreza Chiyaneh) and he knows some English so it works out well for me. Even then, I interact with Indians from morning till evening every day, so I hear some common words and I have picked up some Hindi.

Q. How has Pro Kabaddi changed your life? What was your life before the PKL and how is it different now?

James: I would like to say that James before PKL was not a star, now I am a star in Kenya. I interact with a lot of people and my mind is open to a lot of possibilities. When you travel to a new country you pick up a lot of ideas, but mainly, I have also received a lot of financial assistance thanks to Pro Kabaddi.

Daniel: Life is better for sure. I have more experience in kabaddi, I have learnt more skills, I have met some great people. Now because of Pro Kabaddi, many people want to be like me and play in the PKL. They believe that one day they will also play in the league and it's a good feeling.

It means a lot to me that people know me now back home. I've always been into sports from a young age. I used to play football, thinking I would play for the Kenyan national team one day. By god's grace, I was introduced to kabaddi and I left football for this sport. It feels good to achieve little things and small dreams.

Q. Let's get back to where it all started. If the Kabaddi World Cup is to be held in the near future, how ready will Kenya be to put up a challenge?

James: The Kenya team is always ready, no matter the challenges. Just give us 2-3 months and we will be ready. The only challenge for us is to train well enough. We don't have resources and a proper venue to train, sometimes we train even on the sand.

Before I joined, kabaddi was only in Nairobi, but now there is a team in each of the 47 counties. Teams conduct their own mini tournaments, and now we also have the Mtani League. It helps us to move from estate to estate and influence people to play kabaddi. We organise this small tournament across the counties so that people can come see us play and enjoy.

The government does not get involved much in local tournaments, we have to fund most of it. I must say that our president Madame Laventer spends a lot of money and effort on this, and nothing can happen without her.

Even the players, not just us from the Pro Kabaddi, those who play in the tournaments have to chip in. We also don't make mats in Kenya, they are imported from India. When we have matches away from Nairobi, we transport them to those places. We have a general stadium, we generally have to speak to the ministry to book a hall for our practice. Madam Laventer goes through a lot of struggles, there is nobody to help her. We don't have too many sponsors in Kenya, so she goes through it alone.

Daniel: In our local area, we have our own mats which we train on, some two or three other teams also have mats but not all counties. When tournaments happen, we help organise mats for the people who run it. Once in a while we get sponsors to fund the tournaments. Of late we have started to air them, people watch it and then come to the stadium for the rest of the matches, these are folks apart from friends or family.

We in Kenya have a fantastic team, even many good defenders. I can't really comment on why we haven't seen any defenders in Pro Kabaddi but hopefully soon. Our basic issue is the lack of funding and sponsorships, and we don't get jobs through kabaddi. If all that happens, we will be more than ready!