Everything about Kabadi totally explained
Kabaddi (sometimes written
Kabbadi or
Kabadi) (,,,,; ) is a team
sport originally from the
Indian subcontinent. It is popular throughout
South Asia, and has also spread to
Southeast Asia,
Japan and
Iran. It is the national game of
Bangladesh, and the state game of
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Punjab and
Maharashtra in
India. It is even played by the
British Army, seen by them as both a fun and an excellent way to keep fit, but also as an enticement to recruit more soldiers from the large British Asian community. The name, often chanted during a game, derives from a
Hindi word, meaning "holding of breath", which is a crucial aspect of play.
Gameplay
In the team, or transnational, style of kabaddi, two teams of seven players occupy opposite halves of a field of 12.5m × 10m (roughly half the size of a
basketball court). Each team has five supplementary players that are held in reserve. The game is organized into two 20-minute halves, with a five-minute half-time break during which the teams switch sides.
The teams take turns sending a "raider" across to the opposite team's half, where the goal is to tag or wrestle ("confine") members of the opposite team before returning to the home half. Tagged members are "out" and are sent off the field.
Meanwhile, the defenders must form a chain, for example by linking hands; if the chain is broken, a member of the defending team is sent off. The goal of the defenders is to stop the raider from returning to the home side before taking a breath. If the raider takes a breath before returning to the home side, the raider is out and is sent off the field.
A player can also get "out" by going over a boundary line during the course of the play or if any part of the player's body touches the ground outside the boundary, except during a struggle with an opposing team member.
Each time a player is out the opposing team earns a point. A team scores a bonus of two points, called a
lona, if the entire opposing team is declared out. At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins.
Matches are staged on the basis of age and weight. Six
officials supervise a match: one
referee, two
umpires, a
scorer and two assistant scorers.
Forms of Kabaddi
Surjeevani
The 'Surjeevani' form of Kabaddi is played under the Kabaddi Federation of India, and is governed by its rules and regulations. In the 'Surjeevani' form of Kabaddi, one player is revived against one player of the opposite team who is out. for example, one out, one in. The duration of the game, the number of players, the dimensions of the court, etc. have been fixed by the Kabaddi Federation of India. This form of Kabaddi is the closest to the present game. In this form of Kabaddi, players are put out and revived and the game lasts for 40 minutes with a 5-minute break in between. The team consists of nine players on each side. The team that puts out all the players on the opponent's side scores four extra points for a 'Iona'. The winning team is the one that scores the maximum number of points at the end of 40 minutes. The play field is bigger in this form of Kabaddi and the 'cant' was different in various regions. Modem Kabaddi resembles this form of Kabaddi a great deal especially with regard to 'out & revival system' and 'Iona'. The present form of Kabaddi is a synthesis of all these forms of Kabaddi with a good number of changes in the rules and regulations.
Gaminee
This form of Kabaddi is played with nine players on either side, in a play-field of no specific measurements. The principle characteristic of this form of Kabaddi is that a player who is put out has to remain out until all his team members are put out. The team that's successful in putting out all the players of the opponent's side secures a point. This is akin to the present system of 'Iona'. After all the players are put out, the team is revived and the game continues. The game continues until five or seven 'Iona' are secured. The game has no fixed time. The main disadvantage of this form of Kabaddi is that the player Is not in position to give his best performance since he's likely to remain out for the better part of the match until a Iona is scored.
Amar
Amar literally means invincible.This form of Kabaddi is played in Punjab and Punjabi Diaspora overseas.In the 'Amar' form of Kabaddi, whenever any player is touched (out), he doesn't go out of the court, but stays inside, and one point is awarded to the team that touched him. This game is also played on a time basis, i .e the time is fixed. This form of kabaddi is played in Punjab, Canada, England, New Zealand, USA, Pakistan and Australia. In the Amar form of Kabaddi, each team consists of 5-6 stoppers and 4-5 raiders. At one time, only 4 stoppers are allowed to play on the field. Every time a stopper stops the raider from going back to his starting point, that stoppers team gets 1 point. on the other hand, every time the raider tags one of the stoppers and returns to his starting point, his team gets one point. At one time, only one of the stoppers can try to stop the raider. If more than one touch the raider, an automatic point is awarded to the raider's team. If the stopper is pushed out by the raider or vice versa, then the team whose member is still in the field gets a point. If both the raider and the stopper go out, the result is a common point, where nobody gets a point. There is a 30 second time limit for the raider from the moment he leaves until he returns to his starting point. This rule was only recently introduced (1994) after controversy with some raiders abusing the old system where they were able to struggle through a point until they ran out of breath from repeating the word kabaddi.
History and development
Kabaddi is said to have originated in the Indian
state of
Tamil Nadu and is called
Sadugudu in
Tamil and
Chedugudu in
Telugu. Kabaddi is also very famous and popular in
Punjab and
Bangladesh, where it's the national sport, known as হাডুডু
Haḍuḍu.
The sport has a long history dating back to pre-historic times. It was probably invented to ward off croup attacks by individuals and vice-versa. The game was very popular in the southern part of Asia played in its different forms under different names. A dramatized version of the great Indian epic, the "Mahabharata". has made an analogy of the game to a tight situation faced by Abhimaneu, the heir of ' the Pandava kings when he's surrounded on all sides by the enemy. Buddhist literature speaks of the Gautam Buddha playing Kabaddi for recreation. History also reveals that princes of yore played Kabaddi to display their strength and win their brides!
The game, known as Hu-Tu-Tu in Western India, Ha-Do-Do in Eastern India & Bangladesh, Chedugudu in Southern India and Kaunbada in Northern India, has undergone a sea chance through the ages. Modem Kabaddi is a synthesis of the game played in its various forms under different names.
Kabaddi received its first International exposure during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, demonstrated by Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal, Amaravati, Maharashtra. The game was introduced in the Indian Olympic Games at Calcutta, in the year 1938. It was in 1950, that the All India Kabaddi Federation came into existence and it compiled a standard set of rules. The Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) was founded in
1973. After the formation of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India, the first men's Nationals were held in Madras (now re-named Chennai), while the women's Nationals were held in Calcutta in the year 1955.The AKFI has given new shape to the rules and it has also the rights of modification in the rules. The Asian Kabaddi Federation was founded under the chairmanship of
Sharad Pawar.
Kabaddi was introduced and popularized in Japan in the year 1979. The Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation sent Prof. Sundar Ram of India to extensively tour Japan for about two months to introduce the game.
In
1979, a return test between
Bangladesh and
India was held at different places of India including
Mumbai,
Hyderabad, and Punjab. The Asian Kabaddi Championship was successfully arranged in
1980 and
India emerged as the champion and
Bangladesh as the runners-up. Bangladesh became runners-up again in
1985 in Asian Kabaddi Championship held in
Jaipur,
India. The other teams included in the tournament were
Nepal,
Malaysia and
Japan. The game was included for the first time in Asian Games held in
Beijing in
1990. Eight countries took part including India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. India won the gold medal and has since won gold at the following three Asian Games in
Hiroshima in
1994,
Bangkok in
1998 and
Busan in
2002. India won the gold medal in the recently concluded 2006 Asian Games at Doha.
Attempts to popularize kabaddi in Great Britain saw British TV network
Channel 4 commission a programme dedicated entirely to the sport. The show, entitled
Kabaddi, was broadcast on Channel 4 in the early 1990s, but failed to capture the imagination of the British viewers, despite featuring high-profile fixtures such as West Bengal Police versus the Punjab. As a result of low ratings
Kabaddi was axed in 1992, but not before its presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy suffered a collapsed lung while participating in the sport. The show was replaced by
Bulldog Spirit, a programme based around the popular children's playground game 'British Bulldogs'.
In the 1998 Asian games the Indian Kabaddi team defeated Pakistan in a thrilling final match at Bangkok (Thailand). The chief coach of the team was former kabaddi player and coach Flt. Lt. S P Singh.
The first World Kabaddi Championship in the history of the game, was organized in
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, when more than 14,000 people packed the Copps Coliseum to watch the top players from India, Pakistan, Canada, England, and the United States compete. The next edition was held in
Surrey, British Columbia, which hosts the first all-kabaddi stadium.
(External Link
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India has remained the unbeaten world champion in Kabaddi ever since it was included in Asian Games and South Asian Federation games. In 2008
Sukhbir Singh Badal mooted the idea for a professional world kabbadi league with corporate sponsorship to attract the best kabaddi players from around the world, this proposed league will be based in India with tournaments expected to take place in Canada as well. The Current Kabaddi Championship team consists of several local Indian Players, Himanshu Batta, Ravi Venkataya, Harman Dhaliwal, Kapil Singh and Mayank Gauri who have featured in several famous kabaddi matches.
Further Information
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