Gehlot to head first world kabaddi body

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI: An Indian will head the first-ever International Kabaddi Federation. <br /><br />The honour goes t to head first World kabaddi body to Janardhan Singh Gehlot, who was elected as president of the world<br />body at the Bhartiya Krida Mandir here. Gehlot is the president of the Indian as well as Asian federations and vice-president of the Indian Olympic Association.He said he had offered the post to Sharad Pawar who watched the semis of the World Cup Kabaddi on Sunday morning. <br /><br />"But Mr Pawar said he could not spare the time. Our focus will be to take kabaddi into the Olympics and encourage women to play."<br /><br />Two other Indians have got a post. One is Jaya Shetty, who was elected the CEO. Shetty successfuly conducted the World Cup on behalf of the South Kanara Sports Club. The other is Shankarao `Buva’ Salvi, the guru of kabaddi, who was the first to take it beyond Indian shores in the 80s.He was elected advisor.<br /><br />The meeting was attended by delegates of 17 countries. The world body has 26 member countries. A three-member sub-committee under the chairmanship of Munir Hussain of Bangladesh was also formed to write the constitution of the world body. The committee also includes M Sitaram of India and Nisar Ahmed of Germany.<br /><br />Affiliation was given to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgystan and Turkey, along with the newly formed Malaysia Kabaddi Federation.<br /><br />At the earlier meeting of the Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation the decision of president Gehlot to suspend the secretary general T R Arasu of Malaysia was accepted and affiliation to the new Malaysian Kabaddi Federation was given.<br /><br />"I had suspended the old Malaysian Kabaddi federation, headed by T R Arsu on disciplinary grounds and all the members unanimously agreed to the decision," the president added.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">The IKF committee: </span>President: Janardhan Singh Gehlot (India); Vice Presidents: Mohammed Alipour (Iran), Khana Jawa (Japan), S. Veerawat (Thailand), Yoon Yeong-Hak (S Korea), Ashok Das (United Kingdom); Secretary General: Nisar Ahmed (Germany); Treasurer: R M Sundereshan (Malaysia); CEO: Jaya Shetty (India); Advisor: Shankarrao N.Salvi (India).</div> </div>