A huge welcome greeted NZ's first ever women's Kabaddi team at the Kabaddi Cup Tournament in Greerton yesterday as they put on an exhibition match hosted by Tauranga's Sikh Sports Club.
There is also overwhelming support for this team of Māori women to represent NZ in the Punjabi sport of Kabaddi at the World Cup Tournament in November.
A first for NZ, a first for Māori, and especially for Punjabi people living here, to see an all-Māori women's Kabaddi team playing their national sport here in NZ.
After only five weeks of training, their agility, strength and power, surprised, excited and ignited the crowd's cheers of approval, and gained them support in their campaign to represent NZ, Māori and the Punjabi community, at the upcoming Kabaddi World Cup in November.
These women should be supported as pioneers of Women's Kabaddi in NZ, and elevating the status of all women for the world to see.