Khel Now experts believe Maharashtra's Kabaddi culture is tougher than Haryana's

The northern state is known to have produced some of the biggest legends of the sport.

Kabaddi is an indigenous Indian sport. When the first season of the Pro Kabaddi League was announced, fans didn't know the names of many players. Even the players themselves did not get much recognition but the PKL completely changed that. In the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9, the majority of the teams are made up of players from Haryana, UP, and Maharashtra. Even there are more players from Haryana than anywhere else in the country. So one would believe that Haryana is the hub of Kabaddi in the country.

That belief is not misplaced and indeed Haryana is the hub of the sport with players like Pardeep Narwal and Naveen Kumar are two of the biggest names in Indian Kabaddi at the moment and both of them come from Haryana.

What the Bol Kabaddi Khel Kabaddi experts have to say:

In the Bol Kabaddi Khel Kabaddi show on Khel Now TV, Mohit Chhillar, Preetam Chhillar and Rajiv Baliyan talked about the different Kabaddi cultures in Haryana and Maharashtra. They were of the opinion that Maharashtra has a more rigid Kabaddi culture than Haryana.

"The number of academies in one district of Maharashtra is way more than academies in Haryana and Delhi combined. If a player has to play nationals for Maharashtra a player has to go through a lot of struggle, someone like Aslam Inamdar had to go through that struggle, the more a player plays in local tournaments, the better he gets", said Mohit Chhillar.

"Maharastra has a rich culture, an Asiad gold medallist from 1990 was playing in a tournament just a week back", added Preetam Chhillar. While Rohit Baliyan said that it's not easy to even play for your district in Maharashtra.

"There are so many clubs in Maharashtra that a player struggles to get into their district team", opined Rohit Baliyan. "I don't think there are as many clubs in the country as there are in Maharashtra alone, it's only at such places from where players emerge", concluded Mohit Chhillar.