Nested in India and promoted to the world, Kabaddi is a game of wit, will, and endurance. It is a team sport that depends on contact and evasion from the seven members of each playing team. As a sport where defense requires collective strength and effort, and offense demands smooth and sleek skillfulness from a lone player, it is easy to see how Kabaddi gained massive popularity across the world.
Kabaddi is a combat and contact sport as it allows a great extent of physical contact between the players during a match. However, it is not lawless and there are some actions that attract sanctions. In this review of Kabaddi in India, we look at these actions and other vital details about Kabaddi.
Kabaddi is a pretty straightforward game that requires very minimal equipment, and a lot of skill! Unlike other sports like basketball and cricket, where your aim is important, in Kabaddi, the focus is on stamina and fitness. The game is as dependent on strategy as it is on strength. To play this game, players don’t use balls, pucks, or goal posts, instead muscle coordination, agility, swiftness, and stamina are the required elements.
The game is played between two teams and follows specific rules for scoring the game play.
Viewers are often left on the edges of their seats, in excited attempts to guess the outcome of an offensive play from opposing teams.
Though the game has been around since time immemorial as a ‘playtime’ activity, Kabaddi sports are professionally organized. Debuted at the Asian games in 1990, Kabaddi Game now has the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), established in 2014.
Kabaddi skills and techniques differ based on the position being played, either as a raider (attack) or defense. In some ways, it is similar to the ancient wrestling sport. It can be hard to picture grown men playing what seems to be an advanced form of ‘Tag,’ but when you consider the swiftness and strength required to successfully get a point in this sport, you might understand why there is a National Kabaddi Team and several International Kabaddi sport events.
Kabaddi doesn’t require any equipment other than an arena that is marked according to the rules and specifications.
The origin of Kabaddi is traced to Tamil Nadu, where techniques of group hunting and defense gave rise to the earliest forms of this sport. For many people that grew up in India before the advent of smartphones and virtual gaming, Kabaddi was a favorite childhood pastime.
Kabaddi is native to India but, as time went on and it became more popular, it evolved in prominence, spreading first in the northern parts of India.
In the early-mid 90s, the first organized version of Kabaddi, with standardized formulated rules, was played in Maharashtra. Despite the fact that the sport has gone through several variations with multiple versions currently existing, the main purpose of the game remains the same -acquire points and knock the opponents ‘out.’
Kabaddi is recognized as a national game in countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. International Kabaddi and Indian Kabaddi are the two main forms of the sport, with slightly different rules and regulations.
Like other things in society, sports also transcends space. Kabaddi was introduced to the international community shortly after it started officially in India, and it has since become a prominent sport in the world at large.
Kabaddi is played at grassroot, state, national, and international levels all over the world.
India has dominated as one of the best Kabaddi teams on the international level.
There are slightly different rules guiding the way teams play for a game of India Kabaddi and that of International Kabaddi rules. There are various versions of the Indian Kabaddi game, but the ‘Standard’ variation is the internationally-recognized version, and it is quite similar to the National Style Kabaddi game; two teams of seven members, with 3 reserve members, in case of substitution. The game lasts forty (40) minutes with twenty (20) minutes halves and a half time break of five (5) minutes.
The Indian National Game of Kabaddi has advanced to include regulations and modifications in the different places where it is prominent. Competitions like the Asian Games, Kabaddi World Cup, Women’s Kabaddi World Cup, South Asian Games, and World Kabaddi League became quite inclusive to the Kabaddi sport and it now has its own leagues within and outside the country of origin.
The Pro Kabaddi League has seasonal matches where the ultimate Vivo PKL Winner emerges from the different zones.
Kabaddi is a core sport in the National Games of India, but it also has wide coverage in other areas as Kabaddi is also a National Game of Bangladesh.
There are four main versions of Kabaddi played in India, and they are Punjabi, Amar, Gaminee, and Sanjeevani. These variants have all been recognised by the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), the regulatory body for Indian Kabaddi.
Commonly referred to as kauddi, Punjabi Kabaddi is a version of the Kabaddi game that bears a lot of similarity to the rules of other versions. The main difference is the fact that it is played on a circular pitch with a 22-metres diameter.
Similar to the international standard version of Kabaddi, this version involves 7 players sweating it out in a 40 minute game. One out player of the opposite team gets revived when they manage to oust a player of the rival team. Also, a team can score 4 extra points if they manage to take out the entire opposing team.
This is a variation of the Sanjeevani version. They have the same duration and team specifications. However, in this version, any player who is ‘out’ remains inside the field.
This version is also played with 7 members on each team. Although, there is no revival of players in this version. ‘Out’ players stay out of the field till their team loses the match, therefore there is no set duration for the game as it ends at a loss.
The version of Kabaddi played is usually dependent on different factors.
The new millennium saw the formation of the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF). In 2004, the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) was formed, creating a global platform as countries like Canada and Germany became one of its first members. As at 2015, the federation had a membership of 31 nations all around the globe. The founder of the International Kabaddi Federation is Janardan Singh Gehlot, a native of India. The International Kabaddi world cups, and other competitions, are organized by the IKF. The World Cup began in 2004, but it did not come into full effect till much later. Since 2010, however, it has been an annual event in the world of Kabaddi.
Kabaddi is an adaptable game, making its entry into the international sports scene truly organic. With the establishment of the International Kabaddi Federation by Janardan Singh Gehlot in 2004, the versatile game is now played in different championships at the international level.
The Kabaddi World Cup is the largest championship played in the world. By 2010, the Kabaddi World Cup had become an annual event that Kabaddi players and fans worldwide anticipated. It is organized by the International Kabaddi Federation for teams of both men and women to partake in their select categories. Up until 2014, India was the sole winner of the Kabaddi World Cups, with Pakistan as its frequent second runner up.
The inaugural Women’s Kabaddi World Cup in 2012 was hosted by India in Patna. 16 countries took part in the inaugural event, and they included western countries like the United States, Mexico, and Canada. India was the champion of the 2012 Women’s Kabaddi World Cup. In 2014, India retained the title of champion after defeating New Zealand.
The Asian games are an international competition held once in four years, and Kabaddi has been a regular sport at the event since the 1990 Asian Games, which was held in Beijing China. By 2015, India had won a total of 9 Gold medals. Following India, Bangladesh has the highest number of medals, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze, making a total of 7.
Drawing nearer to the intracontinental plane, the South Asian Games are a series of multi-sport events that bring athletes from all over South Asia together to compete. The South Asian Games are organized by the South Asia Sports Council, a regulatory body that was formed in 1983. As at 2015, there were ojly eight (8) countries actively participating in the South Asian Games. These countries are, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Kabaddi was introduced at the 2010 South Asian Games in Dhaka. The Indian National Men’s and Women’s Teams won in their respective categories.
The World Kabaddi League (WKL) is another international kabaddi championship. It is based on Formula 1 and the first league games were played between August and December 2014 where teams traveled across four continents. Asides these championships, there is also the Asian Kabaddi Championship, as well as the Kabaddi Masters and a host of national Kabaddi competitions. In addition to these championships, Kabaddi has deeply spread into different countries and various continents to the point of having multiple federations around the world including the Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF), Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), the Bangladesh Amateur Kabaddi Federation (BAKF), and the England Kabaddi Federation, UK (EKF).
Kabaddi is also quite popular in nations like Canada, South Korea, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Nepal, among others.
After debuting at the Asian games in 1990 as a national game of India Kabaddi has maintained a strong presence as a professional sport and it has experienced a tremendous frenzy of attention and promotion. So much so that in 2014, the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) was established as a prestigious league. In its seven years of existence, the PKL has maintained an identity as a high-standard league and gained popularity among fans of Kabaddi and the Indian masses as a whole. The inaugural season was watched by 435 million (43.5 crores) viewers, a record that is only second to the 2014 Indian Premier League, which had 552 million (55.2 crores) viewers.
The league started out with eight major teams, which were the Jaipur Pink Panthers, U Mumba, Bengaluru Bulls, Dabang Delhi, Puneri Paltan, Telugu Titans, Bengal Warriors, and Patna Pirates. By the 2017 and 2018–19 seasons, the Pro Kabaddi League had included four new teams.
The Patna Pirates have constantly dominated the top of the scoreboard for the PKL, but the Bengal Warriors took home the title in the last season.
The standard for all Kabaddi games, national and international, is seven players per team for a match. The method of reviving and replacing players may be different but the norm is for each team to have seven players. Some versions of Kabaddi allow three substitutes to be available in case of injury.
Pardeep Narwal is the current captain of the Indian Kabaddi Team. The Indian kabaddi player is a member of the UP Yodha squad in the VIVO Pro Kabaddi League. Pardeep Narwal has three gold medals from representing the nation. He is also the highest raid-point scorer in league history.
The Kabaddi game is native to India and there are several tales around its actual origin. Most people trace the birth of the modern Kabaddi sport to Tamil Nadu.Though, other literature and publications seem to agree that the game started from the Vedic period in ancient India.
India is the best country when it comes to Kabaddi performance and winnings. The origin country of the sport dominates the international kabaddi community at sporting events. Most of the top kabaddi players in the world are natives of India and India has the largest national league of kabaddi teams.
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