Nagoya, Sep 26 Iran’s women’s kabaddi team changed camps three times, trained at roughly 10 different bases over six months, and relied on a psychologist to keep their young players focused as regional conflict disrupted Asian Games preparations, coach Ghulam Raza Mazandrani said here on Saturday.
The upheaval meant the players were preparing for one of the biggest tournaments of their careers while worrying about the safety of their families and dealing with uncertainty over where they would train next — and how they would get home after the Games.
“We had a psychologist and she helped us very good and kept them in the right frame of mind because of the war,” Mazandarani said after Iran pushed India hard before losing 37-34 in the women’s kabaddi final.
“This is not easy. You prepare everything together, this side is war, your family in danger and you should focus on the game.”
The 50-year-old Mazandrani, who has also been a part of the Mumbai franchise in the Pro Kabaddi League, said the players were in regular contact with their families throughout the difficult period, checking on their safety while trying to concentrate on training and competition.
“All players every day call their family and speak together, and they ask if they are safe or not,” he said.
Mazandrani said the team’s preparations had been repeatedly disrupted as the conflict spread across different parts of Iran.
“In six months we had around 10 camps,” he said.
Asked how many times the team had been forced to relocate because of the war, he replied: “Three times we needed to change.”
The moves were not routine changes of training venue. Mazandarani said the team initially had problems in southern and central Iran and eventually moved its camp to the north, where it encountered fewer difficulties.
“South of Iran and in centre we had some war and we had some problem there,” he said. “So, we made our camp only in north of Iran.”
Even there, the team faced logistical problems with facilities, including the availability of courts and training infrastructure. The frequent moves added another layer of pressure to a squad that was already short of preparation and international exposure.
Mazandrani had only six months to build the team, and he said two months of that period were effectively lost because of the war.
“I had only six months’ time and in between happened the war in Iran and two months completely everything finished,” he said.
“So we had very less and short time.”
The disruption extended beyond training. Iran were unable to arrange the kind of international friendly matches Mazandrani wanted to properly assess his team ahead of the Asian Games.
He said the sanctions imposed on Iran made it difficult either to invite teams to Iran or travel abroad for matches.
“When you call Chinese Taipei, they don’t come, you can’t go. When you call India, they don’t come, you can’t go. When you call Japan, they don’t come, you can’t go,” he said.
“So team without any friendly match.”
Asked if sanctions were the reason, Mazandarani replied: “Yes. So that was a really, really tough time.”
The lack of competition was particularly damaging for a team that was still developing. Mazandarani said Iranian players had far fewer opportunities than their Indian counterparts to gain experience against quality opposition.
“In Iran mostly we have maximum two matches, maximum three competitions per year and this is very less,” he said.
“International players can learn only in competition, not in practice, not in the hall. Only in competition they can learn and improve and we need more competition.”
The contrast was evident to Mazandrani when Iran faced India in the final. He felt there was not a huge gap between the two teams in terms of ability, but India’s greater exposure to competition gave it an important advantage.
“My feeling, not too much difference between India or Iran. Our team also played well, but they have good chance because you have too many competitions in India,” he said.
Iran’s squad was also exceptionally young. Mazandrani said its average age was below 22, with the team’s best raiders only 19 or 20.
For those players, he said, the psychological impact of the conflict was harder to absorb because they did not have the perspective that comes with age and experience.
“You have too many experiences and you can understand, okay… but these young people, they can’t understand this. Mostly pressure on them.”
The coach acknowledged that the circumstances could have produced an even worse outcome, but believed the team had shown considerable resilience to reach the final.
“My feeling with this preparing and with this young team, our result was okay,” he said. “Not very good, but it was okay.”
He also pointed to the uncertainty surrounding the team even after the final, saying the players were unsure whether they would be able to fly directly back to Iran.
“We are here but we don’t know, we can’t go with direct flight to Iran or not,” he said.
For Mazandrani, the experience could nevertheless prove valuable for a team with plenty of years ahead of it. Apart from two players around 30, he said, almost the entire squad was under 24 and many could return for the next Asian Games.
“After four years they will be better than this because their experience coming up, their body should be stronger and their mind also a little wide,” he said.
(PTI News)
