Sports Trivia - Kabaddi

There is a sport which is popularly also known as hu-tu-tu in western India, a-do-do in eastern India and Bangladesh, chedu-gudu in southern India, gudu in Srilanka, and thee chub in Thailand, it is none other than kabaddi. Many of the Indians blood raises with new zeal as they hear about this sport.For a long period of time kabaddi was thought to be a game played in the rural areas of our country, with not much interest shown in the games by those living in cities. Not even fit to be a part of the Olympics.

It was a sport that was not embraced by urban India, they completely overlooked the sport. The settings of the sport were such that its use to be played on dusty bowls. Four years later kabaddi, a body contact sport of raiding and defending between two teams, is now the second most watched sport in India behind cricket. The ancient Indian sport of Kabaddi found a new lease of life with the birth of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).

Being a game pioneered and dominated by India since its inception, the overwhelmingly positive reception of the League by the Indian audience has given an opportunity to the promoters to bring the league back for a second season. Appreciated and followed by millions of people around the country, the PKL was a major hit for both the game and the promoters.

From 2016 to 2017, the PKL increased its TV viewership India by almost 100 million people. And while it’s still second to India’s premier cricket competition the Indian Premier League, the pro kabaddi League has managed to attract more Indian viewers than soccer’s World Cup, one of the world’s most-watched sporting events. In December, the sport underlined its growing popularity after three Pro Kabaddi League games enjoyed higher TV ratings than the Indian cricket team’s recent Test match win against Australia.

Even it gave the opportunity for women to play with great spirit. Indian women’s kabaddi team settled for silver at the Asian Games 2018 after a 24-27 loss to Iran in the final in Jakarta. Their silver medal came after the men’s kabaddi team settled for a bronze for the first time since kabaddi was included in the multi-sport event.

Indian women were looking for their third consecutive gold medal at the Asian Games but it was not to be as Iran completed a double and both the men and the women took the yellow metal.

With the silver medal, India now has a total of 24 medals -- 6 gold, 5 silver and 13 bronze. The all-conquering Indian team has won seven gold medals in the sport on the trot. It had brought great recognition to India. Thus we can say that it tests abilities such as reaction ability, balance ability and rhythmic ability significantly related to kabaddi performance and the trophy will be only given to that country which trains the champions accordingly.