Kabaddi Pan America has elected a new president and reconstituted their key office bearers. The continental body has been without proper leadership since the abrupt resignation of the previous president Ricardo Acuna of Argentina.
The organisation in their recent meeting had decided to elect American Ratnagar Singh Dhillon as its new president.
Canadian Parminder Mohan Sharma is the general secretary while Argentinian Gabriel Sacchi is the vice president.
Ratnagar is a former boxer and is also the co-owner of the Brampton Pacers Cricket Club. While passionate about sports, he is also a successful businessman with interest in both the USA and Canada.
Virtue of being elected as the Kabaddi Pan America president, Ratnagar will also be seated as the World Kabaddi vice-president as per the World Kabaddi Statutes. The appointments will be ratified at the next World Kabaddi council meeting.
Parminder, who is the Canada Kabaddi Association president is also an executive committee member of World Kabaddi.
Gabriel was also appointed as the World Kabaddi University Commission secretary last year.
The new line-up would be crucial for the development and promotion of the sport in the continent. Argentina are hosting the inaugural Pan America Kabaddi Championships later this year and a strong continental body would bode well.
Among the key task of the new office bearers will be to strengthen Kabaddi Pan America by bringing in more countries into its fold.
World Kabaddi president welcomed the efforts made by the continental body to restructure itself in its effort to take the game to greater heights.
“Kabaddi needs the game to see growth in all continents and Pan America is undoubtedly a region that we need to see more growth,” said Ashok.
He hoped that the new leadership would work hand-in-hand with Argentina to host a successful Pan American Kabaddi Championships.
“The tournament would be give the much needed visibility that the sports need in the region. We strongly believe that the people in Pan America will take up this exciting sports,” he added.
Meanwhile, Canada is expected to lead the Pan American charge at the inaugural Kabaddi International being held at the TAFISA World Sports for All Games in the Portuguese city of Lisbon from June 18-24.
World Kabaddi, were admitted as members of TAFISA in November last year and have taken the opportunity to participate at the World Sports for All Games.
Apart from Canada, teams from England, India, Scotland, Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Cyprus, Egypt and Iraq have all indicated their interest in participating in Lisbon.