Country first, Manjeet wants to win more medals for India

By Paritosh Pramanik
NAGPUR, Aug 10

SPORTSPERSONS dream of achieving glory. They put in their sweat and blood during training to make sure they don’t falter at the final hurdle.
Some get satisfied after fulfilling their ultimate dream. But, there are a few for whom the hunger to win medals only for the country never ends. They want to keep fetching medals one after the other.
Manjeet Chillar, a professional kabaddi player, belongs to that group of sportspersons who always wants to put country first.
Despite winning gold medals at 2012 Asian Beach Games, 2014 Asian Games, 2014 Asian Indoor Games, World Cup 2016, apart from yellow metals at 2010, 2011, 2012 nationals and above all 2015 Arjuna Award, Manjeet Chillar, the Jaipur Pink Panthers skipper, still wants more. He wants to win more medals for India.
In an exclusive interview with ‘The Hitavada’ Manjeet said he is hungry to do more for the country and never hankers for personal achievements despite achieving so much in life.
“It feels great to win an Arjuna Award and so many gold medals. But I want to win more medals for India. My hunger to win medals for the country will never diminish,” said Manjeet.
Born to a wrestler father, Manjeet, was sent to akhadas at a very young age in his home town in Bahadurgarh, in Jhajhar district. “My late father Jaiprakash was a wrestler and I too was inclined towards wrestling since my childhood. I went to the famous ‘Guru Hanumanji ka Aakhada’, which has produced several Olympians, for my initial training. But as luck has it, I seriously got injured and was sent back home,” Manjeet narrated his wrestling days. 
But wrestling’s loss was kabaddi’s gain as Manjeet started playing kabaddi at local level. “I then started playing kabaddi and within months of training I got selected for the junior team of Haryana state,” said Manjeet who works with Northern Railway and is posted at New Delhi.
“My wrestling stint helped me a lot in kabaddi. I had tremendous strength in my arms and my grip was very strong which helped me in easy tackling and even during my raids,” Manjeet, who is playing kabaddi since 2003, explained.
His unparalleled performance in the junior nationals fetched him a place in the Indian junior team and the rest is history.
Manjeet started Pro Kabaddi with Puneri Paltan and then moved to Bengaluru Bulls. He captained both the teams and, in Season 5, is representing Jaipur Pink Panthers.
Manjeet, who is also the vice-captain of the Indian kabaddi team, is not losing sleep thinking of leading the national team. “It doesn’t matter whether I am captain or vice-captain of the national team. For me, it is the country first. I want to win as many medals as I can for India. Nothing matters for me more than my country,” said Manjeet who won the Arjuna Award in 2015 along with cricketer Rohit Sharma, Indian hockey captain PR Sreejesh and gymnast Dipa Karmakar to name a few.
The all-rounder, who has won Asian Games and Asian Indoor Games kabaddi gold medal in 2014 wants kabaddi to be included in Olympics.
“Kabaddi is a very popular game. It has now grown more all over the world. I think it is the right time to include it in Olympics. The game attracts spectators and the rules are very easy to understand. If included, it will also increase India’s chance of winning a gold medal in the Olympics,” Manjeet concluded.