Women's Kabaddi Challenge begins tomorrow

Three teams -- Fire Birds, Ice Divas and Storm Queens -- will be vying for honours in the Women's Kabaddi Challenge starting tomorrow.
An initiative by the AKFI in association with Mashal Sports, the challenge will reveal three teams -- Fire Birds captained by Mamtha Poojari, Ice Divas captained by Abhilasha Mhatre and Storm Queens captained by Tejeswini Bai.
The first match will be played tomorrow at the DOME SVP, National Sports Club of India in Mumbai with the finals set to be hosted alongside the Men's Pro Kabaddi Finals on July 31 at Hyderabad.
Janardan Singh Gehlot, President, International Kabaddi Federation said, "With Star Sports Pro Kabaddi carving a niche in the sports arena, we felt the need to create the same opportunity for our talented women kabaddi players.

"We have handpicked best of the players across regions to form these three teams who will be part of the Women's Kabaddi Challenge. This initiative will bring tremendous benefit not only to women's kabaddi but to the way overall women's sport in India."
A number of contenders in the Women's Kabaddi Challenge have won several accolades and have already proved themselves in the international arena.

Tejeswini Bai of Storm Queens, Abhilasha Mhatre of Ice Divas and Mamtha Poojari of Fire Birds are all Arjuna awardees. The caliber of these Indian women Kabaddi players can be gauged by the fact that India has won all Golds at the Asian Games since 2006.

The three coaches -- Padmaja of Fire Birds, Banani Saha of Ice Divas and Neeta Dadwe of Storm Queens -- thanked AKFI and Mashal Sports for the support and belief in the future of women's kabaddi in India.
Women Kabaddi Challenge will be played across multiple cities - Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jaipur and Pune starting from June 28th.
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"This a big opportunity for women. After the Arjuna award, I became known only at the district and state, but because of 'Women's Kabaddi Challenge', we will reach in all households. I have for the first time got opportunity to captain the side and will use all my experience for the team," Abhilasha told