Longer PKL not a burden for players, feels Bengaluru coach Randhir (IANS Interview)

Unperturbed by the new longer format, Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) franchise Bengaluru Bulls coach Randhir Singh said a 13-week season will not be a burden for the players.

Hailing the longer format, Randhir, who was awarded with Arjuna Award in 1997, said, this will help the sport as well as players. It will also make the players to practice the sport throughout the year.

"It (longer format) will be very good for the sport. It has three advantages. One is that the player practice kabaddi throughout the year, secondly, a major advantage is that the players diet is also looked after when they're practicing for the league. Third is that they get financial benefits," Randhir told IANS.

"And it's not like they play a match every day. We will also get breaks in between. Back home we practice everyday, we only rest on Sunday's. So a longer league is not a burden for the players, it's very good for the players," he added.

The fifth edition of the event began in Hyderabad on Friday and will travel across 12 host cities, culminating in Chennai with the ultimate battle of Kabaddi supremacy taking place on October 28.

With longer season, injuries will also be a major factor and in order to avoid that, Randhir said he shared his knowledge and experience in the camp to educate the players about it.

"I have already given the players lot of tips during the practice camps on a daily basis. This time our camp was very well organised. We adopted a very systematic approach I created a new approach for every week and listed down what needs to be done on a daily basis. I

have used my expertise which I have achieved over the last four decades to educate the players about the sport," Randhir said.

"An interesting fact is not that the average age of our players is 21 years, which is too less nor too much, which is an advantage for us," he added.

Commenting on the team combination as they roped in many young players in the team, Randhir,

Randhir, who was a member of the Indian team which won the Gold medal at the Asian games, South-Asian games and the Asian championship, said: "We have a fantastic combination of both young and experienced players like Rohit, Ravinder Pahal, Ajay Kumar, Sachin Tomar. We don't have only young players in our team, that's just a misconception people have."

(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at gaurav.sharma@ians.in)

--IANS

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