international kabaddi league beginning soon with a huge mass base in punjab and haryana new academies are honing youngsters skills professionally and the sport has a bright future many see the success of the world cup as a rise in the punjab sports departments gradation and feel that talented players will get jobs and recognition the roads leading up to the arena in ludhiana were choked hours before the final game with 40000 spectators inside roaring their approval at the pregame celebrations like all true punjabis their celebrations knew no restraint the indiapakistan final took on a vibrant hue even actor dharamendra sitting in the spectators gallery sheepishly laughed as the gabrus broke into the famous jat yamla dance kabaddi has its nuances electric moves surreal dodges and muscle power tales of such daredevilry make for great story telling an entertaining sideshow of this sport is the commentary high on metaphor rhetoric and wit rooted in punjabi culture the commentators drew their idioms from folklore literature and religion but hardly any took time in sliding from the sublime to the ridiculous je kabaddi geet hai ta commentary usda saaz hai if kabaddi is a song commentary is its music says professor sawaran singh something of a minor celebrity in the kabaddi circles for over four decades professor has spiced up the game with his witty highpitched commentary much in the tradition of south american football commentators who borrow from music art philosophy and literature to describe the game and who go goooooooaall for an entire minute only to discover that the strike has been disallowed the final between india and pakistan was billed as well another indiapakistan clash high on hyperbole intensity and history as the neighbours from across the border began the raids professor had this ditty for them pakistan te aya lahore da kehnda changsyal da main ranjhe de pind da vekho bhi heer no haath laan aa rehya hai dole fadkde hoye fed in lahore hailing from changsyal pakistan see that raider with rippling muscles is eyeing heer but even i am from the land of ranjha it seemed to work pakistan were swiftly outclassed and mangat singh bagga mangi indias captain drove home to his village near jalandhar not with a blanket or on a cycle but on a shiny new tractor which he won for being the tournaments best stopper kuljeeta was best raiderwith inputs from ip singh and ramandeep singh