Sonipat: Away from the spotlights and behind a veil of secrecy, a 15-member Iranian women’s kabaddi squad and their coach have been quietly preparing for the Asian Games at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Sonipat, Haryana.The team arrived on Aug 13 and will be here for a week. Since their arrival, they have been largely kept away from the public eye and have avoided meeting people outside their training programme. The players have requested that their names not be made public.The team had been training hard for the Asiad when the US-Iran War suddenly broke out. All their plans went haywire. The instability cost them nearly three months of training. And the disruption was not limited to sport. The players’ biggest concern was the safety of their families.There were weeks when some players did not know where their families were or whether they were safe. Training continued, but so did anxiety.The Iranian women’s team is a serious contender on the Asian stage. At the 2018 Asiad, both the Iran men and women kabaddi teams won gold. In 2023, the women’s team won the bronze medal, and the men silver.Training had to go on, and they found a safe harbour in India. The Iranian contingent obtained permission from Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) before making their travel plans.The Iranian squad has been training twice a day at the SAI centre and plays practice matches with local players, getting much-needed competitive exposure. For the Indian players, it’s an opportunity to test themselves against an international side.SAI coach Naveen said the interaction has created considerable excitement among the local players. The Iranian team also trained at Khokhar Academy in Sonipat, where they played practice matches as well. Its coach Rajveer Khokhar said the session proved extremely beneficial for his players.Bheteri, captain of Sonipat SAI women’s kabaddi team, said playing practice matches with the Iranians over the past three days has given her team the feeling of participating in an international-level contest. “It’s the first time the Sonipat team has had exposure to an international side on their home ground,” she said.Player Diksha said playing against an international team offered a chance to learn things that cannot always be understood through routine domestic training.For the Iranian players, the clouds of war always hang around, in phone calls and messages from home. But once they step onto the mat, everything else seems to disappear. The shrill whistle replaces the anxiety of waiting for news. And the raider becomes the only immediate concern.
