Pamulak's kabaddi 'revolution' in Poland

Bengaluru: "Okay you can go. But you have to come back to us."

This was the condition put forth by Piotr Pamulak’s boss at the chemical trial company he works in Warsaw before he left for India for season 10 of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).

“I asked if they will give me so many days off or am I fired? Luckily, I have good bosses,” quips the Poland player who was picked by Bengaluru Bulls for Rs 13 lakh at the auction this year. 

The 28-year-old, like a few other kabaddi players from Poland, juggles between a salary-assured day job and a not-so-lucrative sports career. 

If a pure desi sport like kabaddi, predominantly played in Asia, making its way to an east European country sounds rather surreal, Pamulak’s own sporting career is no less fascinating. 

Pamulak was a player with ‘Warsaw Eagles’, one of the top teams back home, in the Polish American Football League. His team-mate, Michal Spiczko, made the switch to kabaddi to become the first from their country to make inroads to PKL when he played for the Bulls in the second and the third season. Spiczko then became the proponent for the sport in Poland to help grow the game.

“Michal (the then captain of Poland team) walked in one day in 2016 and asked all of us to try kabaddi. The 10-15 of us from the American football team, who were much fitter and athletic, replaced the ones who played before. Two months later we flew to Ahmedabad to participate in the World Cup. That’s how my kabaddi journey began,” Pamulak explains. 

With no competitions locally or in Europe to look forward to, the newly formed national team soon reached a dead end that forced them to discard their ambitious dream for over a year and a half.

“That’s when we decided to start a beach kabaddi tournament. We held the third edition this year with five Polish and one Scottish team,” he says about the event organised by the Polish Kabaddi Federation on the banks of a lake in the eastern city of Augustow. 

Spiczko, Pamulak and the other players along with the federation are now on a mission to popularise kabaddi throughout the country.  

“We are working on a manual because 90% of the players are from Warsaw and it is difficult for us to travel around the country to spread the word. We have made a few videos and posted it on YouTube so anybody can watch and learn the basics,” he explains. 

The player might have managed to grab the attention for where he comes from but the raider is focussed on improving his raiding skills. “Yes, curiosity has definitely risen among people. I have a responsibility to learn as much as I can so the kabaddi revolution we have begun in Poland sustains.” 

After successfully getting his family, friends, colleagues and a few fellow countrymen hooked to kabaddi, even during Christmas, Pamulak is busy trying to win over the city's fans whom he terms the 'craziest' in the country. 

And in a bid to achieve that, the Pole is seen fine-tuning his Kannada and his latest Instagram reel ends with him saying ‘Oh Bengaluru, sakkath'.

Dobrze zrobiony (well done in polish)!