Kabaddi is an interesting Indian game. Not because it has gained popularity amongst the corporates or eyeballs but because of its impact on the society.
It exposed the talent from the villages to the whole world of Kabaddi. These players were from the villages which are not even connected through the cement roads. Some of these villages had only one television set in one colony till few years back.
One such village is Hundalewadi. A small village in the city of Kolhapur, where only 85 families live. One of these 85 families is Desai family.
Their house turns into a mini stadium during Pro Kabaddi since last two years. All the people in that village gather at Desai's house to watch the matches.
They celebrate after every point Desai brothers score. They sometimes even fall on each other while celebrating. They burst crackers, it’s a crazy atmosphere in this village. And why not the village has given two important players to the Kabaddi world.
Pro Kabaddi League has become the benchmark of the popularity of the game in the country where no game other than cricket was considered as the international sports. This post is about the two brothers, who found place in same team due to the #sportinginjuries.
The tale of two brothers
(Source: Google Images)
Pro Kabaddi league is a story of interesting events. One such interesting tale in the Kabaddi world is the story of two brothers playing from a same team. Siddharth and Suraj are fondly known as Desai brothers.
In the Sixth season of the Pro Kabaddi League they both played from the Telugu Titans.
The team is owned by Vaya and Greenko group jointly.
Elder Brother
Suraj is the elder brother and was roped in by Jaipur Pink Panther ( A team owned by Indian Cine Star Abhishek Bacchan) in Season 2 of the Pro Kabaddi League.
In the fifth season he was representing Delhi Dabang. However, he could not play even for a single minute as he was facing the #sportinginjuries.
In the next season the Delhi team released him and Telugu Titans bought him for 2019. In the first match against the earlier owners Delhi Dabang, he broke the record of his brother Siddharth Desai of scoring the highest points in debut.
Highlights of this match can be seen here in the video.
Younger Brother
Siddharth Desai, however was the most valuable player for the Telugu Titans. He scored more than 220 points in a single season. Being the younger brother of the two, he was never interested in Kabaddi, he is a physics grad by education. But later he developed keen interest in the Kabaddi because of his training in Physical education and his younger brother's influence.
He never represented the National teams like his younger brother who played for government organisation Services in the Nationals.
In-spite of being the younger brother and far more successful in terms of money and performance in Pro Kabaddi League, he considers his elder brother as inspiration. Which is a very exceptional phenomena in the world of sports. He is one of the most valuable players of Telugu Titans and now addition of his brother has helped to release the pressure of performance from Siddharth Desai.
Siddharth is a legendary player himself.
He scored six point raid. Its like scoring the six sixes in cricket. Six point raid in layman terms is winning over six players at a single raid. He was however found to be overweight according to the rules and missed some more brownie points to his account. He is a true legend and an educated sportsman in the barbaric game of the Kabaddi.
Had he not been so, then he could have scored even more. He is the most valuable, expensive and high performing player whom Telugu Titans acquired for close to Rs. 10 million.