MANGALORE: With no infrastructure, the only game that could be played in rural areas is kabaddi and the Pro Kabbadi tournament is evincing more interest than cricket and football. This phenomenon is largely restricted to rural areas and not generating as much interest in urban pockets of the district.

Shivaram Yenekallu, physical education teacher at Sri Gopalkrishna High school, Bilinele, 90 kms from here, who himself is a kabaddi player says: I had done a small survey in surrounding villages of Sullia taluk. What was surprising that almost all folks are glued to the TV when the matches are on. "Even all my students, 150, including girls are keen followers of kabaddi," said Shivaram.

This was expected. Since any local kabaddi tournaments gets a minimum of 2,000 to 3,000 crowd. "In Alekkady, an open Kabaddi tournament attracted so many people we were astounded. People here follow kabaddi more than anything else," he asserts.

Regarding the TV format, he says the mat version cannot be emulated here since it is costly and cost runs up to lakhs of rupees. " Basically Kabaddi was born in mud, played barefoot with a belief that mud has healing powers and strengthens the body. But the TV format wants to take it to international level and no player wants his feet to get dirty. So they wear shoes and play on mat," he said but hoped that exposure by electronic media should help raise the status of kababbi to the elevel of hockey if not cricket.

He does not have any favourite teams. "Forget my favourite, every household here supports the team which has got skills. They enjoy watching a good match, tackling skills of players," he notes.

Shivaram hopes that this will help rural players get required exposure and help them get employment. "What I want to stress is Kabaddi was born as there was no infrastructure to play any other game, forget cricket, basketball, football or any other game. These players are strong, they have stamina and have never say die attitude," he observes.