Sports News | Indian Community Playing Big Role in Popularising Kho Kho in England
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. For teenage kho kho players from England, Jaian Saunders and Anya Shah, the traditional Indian sport is not just a means to win medals and popularise the game back home but also a way to remain connected to their roots here.
New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) For teenage kho kho players from England, Jaian Saunders and Anya Shah, the traditional Indian sport is not just a means to win medals and popularise the game back home but also a way to remain connected to their roots here.
Indian-origin players Jalan and Anya are part of the 30-member England contingent touring India for the Kho Kho World Cup and say their adopted country has a competitive structure to rival India, a powerhouse of the sport.
Jaian, 16, took up the sport because of his grounding in athletics. An accomplished 200m runner, he finished fourth in the U17 age-group national athletics championship and missed making the England team.
But kho kho provided him another opportunity to remain connected with sports.
"I developed a liking for kho kho through my Oshwal community. It gave me the opportunity to play in the nationals. I made it to the England trials from the nationals, following which I was scouted by coaches.
"I think, my sporty background, being an athletes and a sprinter, helped me in kho kho," said the teenager, proudly informing that his team had beaten Germany in the opening match of the World Cup at the IG Stadium.
Jaian, whose grandparents moved to the UK from Gujarat, said England has a well-established structure, which is helping kho kho prosper.
He said that the sport is played in almost all the top universities in the country and players, predominantly Indians, number in thousands.
"We have a very competitive structure. We have communities playing the sport in almost every part of England... London, Leicester, to name a few."
Jaian comes from the Oshwal community, which has 10 players in the World Cup contingent.
"The Kho Kho Federation of England hosts the nationals once a year in September. From there we get scouted for the England trials and the deserving players are then selected to the England team," said Jaian, adding that the team comprises mostly of Indians and Nepalese settled in England, besides some English players as well.
"I suppose 70 percent of the players are Indian origin and the rest are from different backgrounds. But they are all born in England," said Jaian, whose younger sister too wants to play kho kho competitively.
Anya stated playing kho kho when she was nine years old and said that at 17 she feels she has been playing for ages.
"I am 17 years old now. I took up the sport when I was nine, so have been playing it for quite some time," said Anya, whose team beat Australia in the World Cup opener.
"I got inspired seeing my Indian friends playing the sport in the community. I thought let's give it a try and I really enjoyed it. My parent and grand parents moved to England from Jamnagar in Gujarat," said Anya, who too is from the Oshwal community and got selected into the England side through the national trials.
While she cannot put a number on how many kho kho players are there in England, but said they would be in thousands.
"I have no idea how many women play kho kho in the country but we play the game all over the country. It could be in thousands. It is community and university-based. Even the top five universities in the UK play kho kho," she said.
One of the major reasons for the sport becoming popular in England is the ease of playing it, said Anya.
"It's easy, it's a fun game with very little equipment required. Besides, social media has played a huge role in popularising it. We are the first national kho kho team from England and we feel we are the big stating names," said the Economics and Physical Education student.
She hoped that with kho kho's popularity growing in the country, the country will have better equipment in future.
"We are not there yet, but hopefully next year we will have that equipment."
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)