Asian gold and Olympics dream: India skipper Anudeep Reddy shares his journey and future of lacrosse in cricket-mad country

India recently won gold Asian Lacrosse Games 2025 held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from Feb 1-5 with Anudeep Reddy leading the team to win 9-2 against Iraq in the final. The game, played in lacrosse sixes format, is an Olympic sport in the same format and India winning its first major title win in the sport will surely help with the popularity and more athletes taking it up in the near future.

We had a detailed chat with India skipper Anudeep Reddy about the game, format, his journey and future of lacrosse in India. Reddy, buoyed by India's gold at the continental event, was hopeful of the team doing well in the upcoming Olympic qualifiers as well.

What prompted you to choose lacrosse?

I would say COVID was a turning point, to be honest. I've had a bit of hockey and football background back in my school days. I did play it in my university days as well, but not on a professional level. So once COVID hit, a lot of people started hitting the gyms taking care of their the physique.

But then I was not really a gym sort of guy, so I thought, 'why not go back to sports?' Which is when I started doing a bit of research. I was searching about new sports that have come up, especially in the Olympics, which is when I came across lacrosse. Which did seem pretty similar to hockey and the kind of skills that I've had seemed pretty similar. So yeah, I just found it out, then reached out to the state federation and then that's how things started moving.

You reached out to the state federation with what requests, as in you wanted to play or you wanted facilities, or wanted to know what is out there?

I think I'll have to give you a bit of a history of how lacrosse has come to India and how it has grown. Basically the Lacrosse Association of India, which is the highest authority that takes care of lacrosse in India, was recognized by World Lacrosse back in 2021, and it took about a year or a year and a half to form these state associations.

When I reached out to the Telangana Lacrosse Association - my home state - they were pretty new at that time. Back in 2023, they just formed the body, and they were just starting regular practice sessions. When I reached out to them, told them about my prior hockey background, as well as football background, they were pretty interested to have me on board and give it a try.

I started attending these regular practice sessions, and then I would say, not a hard journey to get onto the team, especially with the kind of sports background that I had.

Tell us more about lacrosse formats.

I've seen athletes working 15-20 years trying to reach the the pinnacle, but then lacrosse is a relatively new sport. Although, I would just give you a brief idea of what kind of different formats are there in lacrosse:

Basically, lacrosse has three different formats - the traditional format is called the field lacrosse and it's usually played on a larger ground, which is usually around 100 meters long and 55-60 meters wide. It involves 10 players each side and it is usually played pretty much all around the world.

Second is lacrosse sixes, which is the Olympic format, and is more of a modern and a high-tempo format. It is played on a smaller field of around 70m (long) x 36m (wide) with only six players per side. This is more of high intensity and less breaks, making it pretty spectator-friendly as well. It is, however, pretty new to most of the nations. It started growing exponentially since its inception 10-15 years ago, although field lacrosse has been being played for over a century now, but success is relatively new.

And there's another format called the box lacrosse, which is usually played indoors on a hockey rink-sized surface. It's more physical, and not really played in India. India right now has national teams for field and sixes lacrosse.

How does the state association help with arranging the practice sessions, both money-wise and place-wise?

We don't really have a fixed ground, to be honest, even till date. It (practice) usually happens in public grounds based on the number of players coming to these practice sessions. So, whichever (public ground) is closest to the majority of the players

The ground booking usually is either way. The association members usually oversees the booking and everything and as most of the times we play at a public ground, it is usually free. Sometimes if it's not available, we go for a box cricket sort of setup, and then we practice there.

All in all, I would say that most of the times it's the association which takes the initiative. Sometimes, it's the players who just book it and then forward it to the association.

What about the equipments, and coaches, and all other facilities you need for practice?

As far as the coachesare concerned, even at the national level, as well as at the state level, most of them have a hockey background. Since we don't really have specialized lacrosse coaches, most of them come from a hockey background. And with the skills that we use here being pretty similar to what you do in hockey, they have been helping us with most of the coaching.

We have been following a lot of YouTube videos, to be honest, since we don't really have someone with 10 or 15 years of playing experience. The coaches are relatively new, the players are relatively new, so we mostly follow the guides from YouTube as well and I am personally, in touch with a couple of players from Singapore, and Malaysia, so I try to get their inputs as well. We sort of have those drills as part of the practice sessions.

Coming to the equipments part, as of now, the Lacrosse Association of India has been sourcing most of the equipments like the lacrosse stick, the balls, as well as the protective gear. As for our state association, we only have the sticks and balls and we usually use the hockey protective gear, which is pretty similar to lacrosse. But at the national level, we have lacrosse specific gears for all the players.

How did you find more players to join with you for both India and the state association?

The Indian lacrosse association have been doing marketing all by themselves. There are 25 state associations and once the state associations were formed, they have been doing a lot of talent hunts, and then referee and coaching camps, wherein they have been trying to reach out to more people and get more visibility.

Coming to the Telangana State Association, they have been actively involved in reaching out to schools and colleges. So whenever there's some showcase matches or something like that, we players usually go there, showcase the games.

What is the skill set needed to play this game and why you think players will stick to it?

Most of the players, in Telangana as well as the Indian team, I would say pretty much across all the states, at least like I would say, 50 to 60 percent have a hockey background, and the rest usually have some sport background. So, usually it's like sort of a jump from a different sport, and then once they enter lacrosse, I'm pretty sure they would stick to it. It's very exciting, so I'm pretty sure, like, once a player tries lacrosse, they'll stick to it.

Tell us about your journey from getting associated with the national team, going to Asian team, and then becoming the captain, and then eventually winning the gold as well.

I started seriously involving in lacrosse back in 2024 when I started practicing professionally. In 2024, I also practiced with Singapore Lacrosse Association. I've attended some sessions with their national team, as well as, one of the leading clubs in Singapore too.

After that, the Indian men's team basically participated in the first international field lacrosse tournament at the Okinawa Open in Japan, which is one of the largest and most competitive field lacrosse tournaments in Asia. I was the captain for the field lacrosse team as well back in 2025, where we actually got a first foreign exposure. We have learned a lot of lessons, and we brought back those international skills and lessons that we wanted to implement for the future tournaments.

After this, I think the first sixes lacrosse tournament that we have participated in is the Asian Lacrosse Games. We have had a lot of national-level camps between 2024 and 2026. We have also had a lot of national-level tournaments. We've had zonal-level tournaments and state-level tournaments as well. We have been continuously in practice. The Lacrosse Association of India have been getting foreign coaches as well as international experts who got increasingly involved in the national camps, which gave us more of a global perspective rather than just playing locally and then having those skills.

I think this global perspective, practicing, being guided by these international coaches helped us perform well in the Asian Lacrosse Games. In the tournament, both the women's and men's team come from diverse backgrounds, from different states, different age groups. But again, like I said, we have played a lot of state level and national level and zonal level tournaments, which is when a lot of bonding happened, and then we together as a team played a lot during the camps, which actually helped us get the double gold in the Asian Lacrosse Games.

Going forward, what is your idea of future of lacrosse in India including the amount of exposure and help from the state association as well as the national association to make it a viable option for young players?

The Lacrosse Association of India has been working towards it. The equipment, as of now, costs a bit on the pricier side, especially because most of the equipment is usually sourced from from the US and Canada, which actually costs a lot. The Lacrosse Association of India has been making sure to try and source material from Southeast Asia to ensure it's more accessible and more affordable for the players from all backgrounds.

Also, the amount of tournaments and the amount of camps happening right now is at an all, all-time high. So I think it would be very easier for those players to come up and play lacrosse. I'm pretty sure once the equipment is more accessible and more affordable to people from all walks of life, I'm pretty sure it should grow within the next one or two years.

And the national association has also been trying to get visibility at the central level. They've been trying to get the game included in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs list so they've been in touch with the concerned authorities. We are pretty optimistic about getting the government support within the next six months, and we hope that once we get the government support, we will have more foreign exposure and we'll go on to perform well in the upcoming continental Olympic qualifiers as well.

Team India Mens Squad - ALG 2026: Anudeep Reddy (C), Anis Latif Shaik, Ashish, Belagal Hussenisab, Chandan Rabha, Chirag Pandey, Daya Shankar Gameti, Gunish Singh Bedi, Harsh Nayyar, Jitendra Kumar Bhera, Khuma Ram Gameti, Mohan Lal Gameti, Mrunal Milind Shyamkuwar, Narayan Lal Gameti, Nishant Nagda, Paramjeet Kumar, Sagar Nandkishor Borde, Sangram Tukaram Kale