From street games to World Cup: Pratik Waikar's journey to Indian Kho Kho stardom

New Delhi [India], October 29 : With the inaugural edition of the Kho Kho World Cup set to be hosted in New Delhi, from January 13-19 2025, top players worldwide are gearing up for a new challenge. The hosts India will rely on some of their best players to ensure the trophy comes home in its first edition. One such player is Pratik Waikar, an Eklavya Award winner who made his debut for India in 2016 and has performed consistently for the team.
Pratik started playing Kho Kho at the early age of eight, thanks to his family's background in sports. While he began with Langdi - another sport native to India - the Maharashtra-born player was unaware of how his future would unfold and make him one of the best Kho Kho players in the country.
Discussing his early journey, Pratik recalled an incident with his neighbour that inspired him to become a Kho Kho player,
"The area I used to live in had good Kho Kho players. There was an excellent player who lived opposite my house. When I was very young, he was awarded a prestigious Maharashtrian award -- the Shivaji Award -- and I saw him welcomed with a complete rally using dhol and tasha. These scenes really inspired me, and I started playing the sport," said Pratik as quoted by a Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI) press release.
However, he had his own share of challenges in this sporting journey as his family was struggling financially at the time, restricting his chances to explore other sports or careers. Thanks to his outstanding performances in the U-18 category, he was soon offered a job through the talent quota, which helped improve his family's circumstances.
"After I competed at the U-18 level, I was offered a job at the Maharashtra Electricity Board, and they expressed their wish to include me in their team. It was a direct recruitment. My family was overjoyed that at 19 years, I had my first job. My brother had also started working a few years before, having been selected by Central Railways to play Kho Kho. He too was an excellent player and my inspiration -- I always wanted to play the way he did. His reflexes were very sharp, and he was also offered a job through the talent quota after U-18. So our financial conditions started improving," Pratik shared.
Having found a regular source of income for his family, Pratik turned towards making a name for himself in Kho Kho. He led the Telugu Yoddhas in the Ultimate Kho Kho League, finishing as runners-up. He also represented the Maharashtra team in the recent 56th Senior National Kho Kho Championship, winning gold in the competition.
The player, who holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's Degree in Finance, has been part of the Indian Kho Kho ecosystem for more than two decades. With his rich knowledge of the sport, Pratik also expressed how the introduction of sports sciences in Kho Kho has helped him in recent years, something that was missing for a large part of his career.
Lauding the sports science technology, Pratik said, "They have developed excellent technology that conducts a complete assessment of our body. We learned which muscles were being overused and which were not being utilized to their full potential. It made us aware of how much progress we could make in our game and how we could improve beyond our current level. All this was calculated using sports science technology."
With just a few months until the World Cup action begins, all eyes will be on Pratik to see if he can replicate the success he has achieved for so many years on the mat once again.