If you live in any Asian Country or the Indian Subcontinent, the game of Kabaddi is likely to be one of your local heritage.
Kabaddi is the state game of some states in India, it’s even the National Sport of Bangladesh; this is a traditional game that was formalized thanks to the unrelenting push of India and some other Asian countries.
It’s hard to keep track of all the rules of Kabaddi because there are several variations from region to region.
As a result of its regional variations, Kabaddi has a different set of rules.
To keep things simple, let’s stick with the Standard Style of Kabaddi recognized by the International Kabaddi Federation.
Here’s a brief glimpse into the way the Standard Style Kabaddi is being played.
Two teams of seven players are needed to play the game of Kabaddi. The principal objective of the game is for a player tagged the ’raider’ to infiltrate the opposing team’s half of the court and tag out as many of their defenders as possible and return to his or her half of the court without suffering a tackle from the other team’s defenders.
It’s imperative that the raider chant ’kabaddi’ before venturing into the opposition’s territory because it must be proven that the raid was carried out without the raider holding his or her breath.
If a team’s raider gets tackled or tagged out, a player is removed from the team only to be reinstated or revived when the team scores a point.
This isn’t an exhaustive introduction but it covers the basics.
Here’s a list of 5 Interesting Facts about Kabaddi
5. Kabaddi, the game with a thousand names
Do you know that Kabaddi is known by different names in different parts of Asia and the Indian Subcontinent?
The people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana call it kabaddi or Chengdu.
In Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala, the game is simply known as Kabaddi while it is either known as Kabadi or Ha-du-du in Bangladesh.
In the Maldives and the Punjab region, the game is known as Bhavatik or Kauddi and Kabaddi respectively.
The preferred name in Western India is hu-tu-tu while the Eastern Indians call it hu-do-do.
In South India, it’s called chadakudu while it is called kapardi in Nepal and kabadi or sadugudu in Tamil Nadu.
4. India, the undisputed Kabaddi Champions
Up till this present moment, India has won all six Kabaddi world cups played, a marker of the country’s unparalleled adeptness at playing the game of Kabaddi. In fact, all the Kabaddi world cups ever played were held in India.
For the first time, in a major upset, India the seven-time Asian Games gold medalist lost their first-ever championship in 28 years at the 2018 Asian Games to South Korea in the men’s Kabaddi group A-game. This notwithstanding, Indians are Kabaddi Champions.
3. Asian Countries sold Kabaddi to the World
The standard style of kabaddi popular today is an aggregation of the various forms of the game played under different names.
During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the light of international exposure was beamed on Kabaddi. In India, the game was further entrenched into the mainstream when it was introduced during the Olympic Games at Calcutta in 1938.
The year 1950 witnessed the birth of the All India Kabaddi Federation and the compilation of standard rules by the federation.
In 1973, The Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) was founded and after its formation, the first men’s nationals were held in Tamil Nadu.
On the Continental Scene, The Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF) was founded under the chairmanship of the International Kabaddi Federation.
In 1980, The Asian Kabaddi Championship was arranged and India emerged as champion and Bangladesh runner-up. Again in 1985, Bangladesh finished as the runner-up again in the Asian Kabaddi Championship held in Jaipur, India.
For the first time in 1990, Kabaddi was included in the Asian Games in Beijing.
Participating countries include countries like China, Japan, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh with India winning the gold medal.
Ultimately, a study of the way the game of Kabaddi has evolved over the years shows that India and the Asian continent have been heralding the game of Kabaddi to the world.
2. Amazon Prime Videos Series “Son of the soil” showcased Kabaddi to the world
Pro Kabaddi League is spearheading a revival of one of the most indigenous sports known to the Indian Subcontinent. In this docuseries, the story of the Jaipur Pink Panthers, a team in the Pro Kabaddi League was told to the world in a way that improves the reputation of the sport in the world.
The story of how Abhishek Bachchan, the owner of the team gives his heart and soul to the franchise and the sport with a passion to scale the pinnacle of the sport was narrated with gusto.
Produced by BBC Studios India, Sons Of The Soil: Jaipur Pink Panthers follows the team through Season 7 of the Pro Kabaddi League tournament and captures the ups and downs of the game and its players.
This documentary series gives its audience original ’behind the scene’ insights into the Indian sports scene in general and the Pro Kabaddi League in particular. It has also generated a great deal of interest among lovers of Kabaddi all over the world.
1. Kabaddi Goes to the Olympics
According to prokabaddi.com, Indian sports minister Kiren Rijiju is reported to have said that the Indian government will do all it can legitimately do to get kabaddi into the 2024 Olympics Games to be held in Paris, France.
“Kabaddi is an indigenous sport and that the government would make efforts to take it to the Olympics,” he said while responding to a question in the Lok Sabha.
The same source also claimed that Former sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore too had lobbied for kabaddi’s entry as a discipline in the Olympic Games.
“Hopefully kabaddi will very soon become a global sport and we will see it emerge as a strong contender for an Olympic sport,” Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore is reported to have said during the Kabaddi Masters Dubai 2018.
Rathore also maintained that since the sport involves very little equipment and has a mix of strength, ability, speed, and thinking, he’s certain that the sport will be received by the world and eventually debut at the Olympics.
Hope you liked our list of 5 Interesting Facts about Kabaddi. Enjoy.
