Kabaddi is an Indian game almost 4,000 years old. The sport requires both skill and power with a key focus on agility and movement, without any equipment needed the game is easily played in your very own back garden.
A team sport, Kabaddi combines the characteristics of wrestling and rugby as it was originally created to help develop self-defence, aiding your ability to attack as an individual and defend as a unit.
It is a simple and inexpensive game which requires neither a massive playing area or any expensive equipment. This explains the popularity of the game in rural India and all over Asia.
Kabaddi is known by various names such as viz. Chedugudu or Hu-Tu-Tu in Southern parts of India, Hadudu (Men) and Chu – Kit-Kit (women) in Eastern India and Kabaddi in Northern India. The sport is also popular in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Japan and Pakistan.
The first World Kabaddi Championship was organized in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada,where more than 14,000 people packed the Copps Coliseum, to watch the top players from India, Pakistan, Canada, England, and the United States compete.
In kabaddi dominated countries such as India and Canada, it is played on a professional basis with top players earning up to $25,000 for a two month season. Balwinder Phiddu has made the most profit from the game, he started playing in 1975 and only retired after the 1997 World Cup.
The Game
Two teams compete against each other attempting to reach the highest score.
Points are scored by touching or capturing the players of the opponent team.
Each team consists of 12 players, of which seven are on court at a time and five in reserve.
The two teams, alternate in defence and offense in a court as large as a dodge ball court.
The game consists of two 20-minute halves, with a break of five minutes for change of sides.
The side winning the toss sends their ‘raider’, who enters the opponents’ court chanting, ‘kabaddi-kabaddi’.
The raider’s aim is to touch any or all players on the opposing side, and return to his court in one breathe.
The person, whom the raider touches, will then be out. The aim of the opposing team will be to hold the raider, and stop him from returning to his own court, until he is forced to take another breath.
If the raider cannot return to his court in the same breath while he will be declared out.
Each team alternates sending a player into the opponents’ court. If a player goes out of the boundary line during the course of the play, or if any part of his body touches the ground outside the boundary, he will be out, except during a struggle.
