Kabbadi World Cup in India: Some history, some explanation

In his Eye on India column, Dileep Premachandran explains the recently-concluded Kabbadi World Cup in India.

For the third Kabaddi World Cup in succession – the first two were held in 2004 and 2007 – India and Iran met in the final.

With Pakistan staying away and Bangladesh upstaged by South Korea, surprise table-toppers and semi-finalists, this was the final most expected, though both teams suffered a blip on the road to the summit clash in Ahmedabad.

India, who triumphed in the final 38-29, started their campaign with a shock defeat to the Koreans, losing by two points (34-32) in a game where they had twice led by eight.

The backlash from that saw Australia, Bangladesh, Argentina and England thrashed, before Thailand were brushed aside 73-20 in the semi-final.

Like South Korea, who had topped India’s group with five wins, Iran were on course for a perfect record in theirs after seeing off Kenya (33-28) and Japan (38-34) in close contests.

But Poland, who started playing at this level just two years ago, shocked Iran 41-25 in their final game, with the West Asian side having left some of their stars on the bench.

Having avoided India in the last four, Iran then pulled away from the Koreans in the last 10 minutes to win 28-22.

Like India, Iran’s kabaddi tradition goes back thousands of years, and the hosts were certainly not taking them lightly. At the first World Cup, India had won 55-27. By 2007, Iran had narrowed the gap to 29-19.

On both those occasions, Pakistan – silver medallists at the Asian Games in 1998 and 2006 – had not been in the fray.

But any doubts over Iran being India’s biggest challengers have been dispelled by their performances at the last two Asian Games.

In Guangzhou (2010), they edged past Pakistan 17-16 in the semi, before losing 37-20 to India in the final.

Four years later, in Incheon, after the first half finished 9-9, Pakistan were demolished 25-14 in the semi-final, before the Indians got a real scare in the final.

Iran led 21-13 at the half, and India needed to dig Mariana Trench-deep to prevail 27-25 over the 40 minutes.

The sport has a huge following in Punjab, and many other states in India. In the version that’s played internationally, the court is 10x13m, with each team having seven players on court at any one time.

To get a point, the raider – usually three of the seven – must take a deep breath and cross into the opponents’ half. He then needs to tag as many of them as he can before returning to his half without being caught.

Only then can they inhale again. To convince the referee that there are no breathing shenanigans, the raider will keep chanting “kabaddi, kabaddi”.

If the tagged defenders do not manage to catch him before he returns to home base, they are out of the game.

Defenders cannot cross that halfway line, and there are bonus points to be had for raiders that cross a second line deeper in enemy territory.

This deceptively simple game requires both extraordinary strength and athleticism, and it has really caught on with a generation previously in thrall to cricket and European football.

When Star Sports launched the Pro Kabaddi League in 2014, a year in which India played no Test cricket at home, as many as 435 million tuned in for the matches. The Indian Premier League audience that year was 560 million.

Before the final, Anup Kumar, the Indian captain wrote an open letter which was then shared on social media, asking mothers to let their kids “watch an extra 40 minutes of TV”, and office managers to let “employees leave 40 minutes early”.

“We’re counting on your support one final time, so that we can bring the trophy home,” he wrote and his side backed up that promise.

Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport