J Panguluru, heaven for Kho Kho in AP

The Janakavaram Panguluru, a village in the Prakasam district has become the headquarters for the game Kho Kho, training, and tournaments in Andhra Pradesh. The villagers' love for the game, support from the local public representatives, and the dedicated service of the coach Mekala Seetarami Reddy helped many players to reach the national level and achieve jobs in the state and central government departments, including the PETs in schools to train more students in Kho Kho.

It all started with the joining of Mekala Seetarami Reddy as the physical director at Magunta Subbarami Reddy & Bachina Narayanamma Junior College in J Panguluru in 1992. Being the first player to represent the Prakasam district at the national level sports meet in Kho Kho, and won many medals in the game, Seetarami Reddy started training MSR& BNM Junior College team. With his efforts in coaching, the Under-19 Kho Kho team from the J Panguluru became the district-level champion in 1993. The winning streak continued up to 2018-19, and still, they are the defending champions as the government didn't hold the district level championship in 2019-20 and 2020-21 due to the COVID pandemic. The girls' team also recorded the consecutive winnings for eight years, until the coach decided to put off the training for the team due to local conditions.

In the last 28 years history of the J Panguluru Kho Kho team, about 350 players played in the state and national level tournaments and won about 60 gold, 60 silver, and 90 bronze medals. Bhavanam Kasi Viswanatha Reddy, Bolla Narendra, and others are renowned national level players from the village. Apart from finding a career in the sports, about 40 players from the J Panguluru team are now settled as the PETs in various schools, 30 people joined the army, 15 are serving as teachers while 5 others selected as the CIs, 5 people as SIs and 30 others as the constables in the police department. And, the number of people who became engineers and went abroad after completion of education with the help of Sports Certificate is more than 50. He said that they lost track of the number of people who got jobs on the sports certificates for playing in the J Panguluru team.

The coach Seetarami Reddy credits all the achievements to the villagers and the patrons who loved the game and encouraged the students. He said that it is only with the support of the villagers, he can conduct 170 training camps, including state and national levels, in the single and same village. He remembered the then principal of the college, Purushotham for advising him to focus on the single game, the game he excels in, to train the students and thanked him for the achievements. He said that the villagers, who observed the game, the training programs, owned the game and now there is at least one Kho Kho player from each house. He said that when they are in a dilemma to accept the opportunity to conduct the national level tournaments, it is the villagers who supported them and offered accommodation to the players from other states in their homes. He said that the former MLA Bachina Garataiah and his family is also a consistent driving force to them in conducting 10 state level and 3 national level tournaments in the village.

However, the master coach of the SRR Kho Kho Academy, Mekala Seetarami Reddy expresses dissatisfaction over the situation. He said that there is not much cooperation from the government system to the players and organizations. He said that the sports policy by the government is not based on the ground-level realities and officers who make the policies didn't discuss the issues with the players, sportspersons, and the coaches. He questioned the rationale in fixing the validity for the sports certificate as just 10 years. Also, he requested the government to support the best performing colleges like them, even though they are run by the trust boards for the benefit of the students and players. Being the vice president of Kho Kho Federation of India, Seetarami Reddy advises the government to create a system in which the sports certificates are given validity until the players attain a certain age, and authorities can verify the authenticity of those certificates. He also wants the government to set up a mechanism, where the experts can provide feedback and data on the policies so that they can be amended if the ground reality is different than the anticipated results.