It is something we played passionately during school days – can you connect : Bengaluru Bulls; Bengal Warriors; Delhi; Jaipur Pink Panthers; Patna Pirates; Puneri Paltan; Telugu Titans & U Mumba – easy – team names of private clubs – a la IPL .... the sports is Kabbadi.
Kabaddi, is uniquely Indian, born in the southern state
of Tamil Nadu and now played across the country and even in parts of the world
with a sizeable Indian population – but surprisingly, no Tamil Nadu team in that. The attempt is big – to fit Kabbadi in higher
echelons of viewed game in thousands of crore worth broadcast rights, sponsors,
sporting leagues and more. Star India has put its weight behind the Indian Badminton
League, Hockey India League, the Indian Super League for football, and now, the
Pro Kabaddi League, which starts on 26 July. The kabaddi league is promoted by
Mashal Sports Pvt. Ltd in association with the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of
India, the official recognized body for the sport in India, the International
Kabaddi Federation and the Asian Kabaddi Federation. Star India is the
long-term broadcast partner.
Kabaddi
dates back to ancient, even pre-historic times. In Hindu mythology, historians
find resemblance with the origins of Kabaddi.
The trapping of great warrior Abhimanyu in ‘chakra vyuha’ is analogous
with the game. From time immemorial, this game has been
associagted with show of physical strength and valour. Kabaddi is basically a combative sport, with
seven players on each side; played for a period of 40 minutes with a 5-minute
break (20-5-20). The core idea of the game is to score points by raiding into
the opponent's court and touching as many defense players as possible without
getting caught; in a single breath. The raider chants – ‘Kabaddi!! Kabaddi!!
Kabaddi!!’ runs into the half of opponents and has to reemerge. The players on the defensive side are called
"Antis" while the player of the offense is called the
"Raider". The attack in Kabaddi is known as 'Raid'. The antis touched
by the raider during the attack are declared 'out', if they do not succeed in
catching the raider before he returns to his home court. The 'out' player
returns on court: if his team's raider successfully tags an opponent, or his
remaining team members succeed in catching the opponent's raider.
The All India Kabaddi
Federation was formed in 1950 to look after the promotion of the game and the
Senior National Championship started in the year 1952. Amateur Kabaddi
Federation of India (AKFI) came into existence from the year 1972 affiliated to
the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) with a view to popularize the game in
India and neighbouring countries of Asia. The Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF)
was formed in 1978. The 1st Asian Kabaddi Championship was held in 1980.
Kabaddi was then included as a demonstration game at the 9th Asian Games, New
Delhi in 1982. The game was included in the South Asian Federation (SAF) games
from the year 1984 at Dhaka, Bangladesh. Kabaddi was included as a regular
sports discipline in the 11th Beijing Asian Games 1990 where India won the lone
Gold Medal for Kabaddi-its only gold medal at Beijing. The Indian team
continues to create history by winning the gold medal at each succeeding Asian
Games held thereafter: Hiroshima 1994, Bangkok 1998, Busan 2002, Doha 2006 and
Guangzhou 2010.
The International
Kabaddi Federation (IKF) was formed during the 1st Kabaddi World Cup in Kabaddi
2004 at Mumbai in India. India won the World Cup by beating Iran in the finals.
The 1st Asian Womens Championship was held at Hyderabad in 2005 and India won
the gold medal. The 15th Asian Games at
Doha provided an excellent opportunity to showcase Kabaddi to many Europeans
and Australians, who were responsible for organizing the Games.
The game Kabbadi
still remains not so much popular in India and now there is this new attempted ‘pro-kabbadi’
in the style of IPL - 8 franchises pitting their tactics and strategies. When the bid started, Bengaluru Bulls, drew first blood winning the
bid for star raider, Asian Indoor Games
2013 Gold Medalist, Ajay Thakur for Rs.12.20 lakhs – Patna bought World Cup Gold Medalist from 2007, Rakesh
Kumar for Rs.12.80 lakhs. Pro Kabaddi, a
first significant initiative of Mashal Sports, takes our truly indigenous sport
of Kabaddi to levels of new professionalism, which will benefit all
stakeholders involved in the ecosystem of the game. Pro Kabaddi would be an eight-city league
with games to be played on a caravan basis with each team playing each other
twice in July and August, 2014. The matches will be live on prime time TV by
the international broadcaster, Star Sports for millions to view across India
and the world. Pro-Kabbadi League (PKL) is currently supervised by Mashal
Sports Managing director Charu Sharma. Sure this has enthused players and fans
in a good measure. The tournament is
well-marketed, the matches live on prime-time TV, the players well paid – a
dozen of them earned Rs.10 lakh or more at the auction while all eight sides
nearly exhausted their 60 lakh purse – and all of a sudden, the mood in the
community is cheerful.
The popularity
of the game in Tamil Nadu (sad there are no teams from the State in the
Pro-league) can be gauged by the fact of its affiliation in Tamil cinemas. In Ghilli (Telegu: Okkadu) – Vijay is a
kabbadi champion. In ‘Vennila Kabbadi
Kuzhu’…… the titular kabbadi team, Vennilla, finds itself by chance in a
State-level tournament and dramatically enter the finals ~ the end was
pathos….. ~ a movie directed by
Susindran in 2009 starring many newcomers of whom Suri emerged bigger. It was later
remade in Telugu as Bheemili Kabaddi Jattu in the year 2010.
Away, in the recent
version of IPL, more than 468 crores were spent during the auction – the highest of them all – Yuvraj Singh
was bought for Rs.14 crores by RCB; Dinesh Karthick was picked for Rs.12.5
crores by Delhi; Kevin Pietersen for 9 crores by Delhi....- and money flowed
more as 5 crores went to Robin Uthappa (KKR), Murali Vijay (DD), Michael Hussey
(MI) and Mitchell Starc (RCB) ............
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
21st July
2o14.
