Bobby Dhillon (left) takes over as the new World Kabaddi president from Dr Osama Said Hashem (centre)
Canadian Bobby Dhillon has taken over the reins as the president of World Kabaddi with immediate effect.
The decision was made at the World Kabaddi Central Board meeting on Wednesday following the resignation of Dr Osama Said Hashem of Egypt.
Bobby is currently the president of the PanAm Kabaddi and by virtue of that also one of the vice-presidents of World Kabaddi. As per Article 16 of the World Kabaddi, the first vice-president takes over the role if the president resigns or is unable to continue.
With Canada hosting the World Cup Kabaddi in 2027, Bobby’s elevation as the president would help increase the profile of the tournament.
The Central Board also decided to defer any discussion on the merger of the World Kabaddi with the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) for the time being at least until after both warring parties within the IKF conclude their General Body Meetings.
One faction of the IKF has called for their General Body Meeting in Bangkok in August while the other faction has called for their meeting during the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya in September.
Due to the uncertainty of which IKF faction actually has the confidence of its members, the support from World Kabaddi to either group at this juncture would strengthen the faction but almost certain to be detrimental to World Kabaddi.
The conclusion of both IKF meetings would give World Kabaddi a clearer picture on the right party to continue their negotiations on any future merger.
World Kabaddi members have also been advised to ignore any overtures from third parties and refrain from attending any meetings of the IKF to avoid unnecessary complications.
World Kabaddi is currently the largest governing body for the sport and has always supported the unification of all international kabaddi bodies. However, any hasty merger at this point of time would only see it drawn into an avoidable legal mess.
In the meantime, World Kabaddi will continue to strengthen its own presence around the globe with more projects targeted towards empowering our member national federations.
