Kabaddi World Cup 2025: What are the rules for the sport as tournament heads to the Midlands?
KABADDI is heading to the West Midlands for the second iteration of the World Cup in 2025.
The World Kabaddi organisation was formed in 2018, and they put on the first Kabaddi World Cup during 2019 in Malaysia.
Britain has hosted the British Kabaddi League since 2022, and was awarded the Kabaddi World Cup following their hosting of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Legend has it that Kabaddi originated in India over 4,000 years ago.
The world’s top men and women players are in the Midlands THIS WEEK for the World Cup.
The men’s iteration will see 16 teams taking part, with the women’s seeing eight.
During the inaugural World Kabaddi style World Cup in 2019, India won both the men’s and the women’s tournaments.
England captain Harpree ‘Harry’ Singh, told SunSport: “This is a great chance to showcase the sport to the youth.
“We want to try to show a new set of fans the physical aspects of kabaddi – but also the camaraderie and unity it brings to people.
“Hopefully hosting the World Cup sparks conversation on how we can grow it in the UK and also rival the best like India.
“It’s a grassroots sport in India. Unfortunately, it’s not here in the UK at the moment.
What are the rules to Kabaddi?
The sport is played on a 13m x 10m court with either team of seven players occupying half that as their own territory.
The object of the game is simple enough.
In attack, a single player from one team must ‘raid’ the enemy half and ‘tag’ opponents — with a point awarded for each defender tagged should the raider return to their own half successfully.
The time limit for each raid is however long the raider can hold their breath which is where the “Kabaddi, Kabaddi” chant comes in. The attacker must continually chant until either they reach back to their own half or are tackled — ending the raid.
Defenders, meanwhile, must stop the raider by either tackling them to the ground, pushing them out of bounds, or keeping them within their half until the attacking player runs out of breath — gaining the defending team a point.
Any defender successfully tagged and any raider successfully stopped are taken out of the game, however they can be ‘revived’ by each point gained in subsequent defensive or offensive plays.
Players & Equipment
- Kabaddi teams consist of 12 players, with only seven players allowed on the court at any given point.
- The Kabaddi playing surface measures 13m x 10m and is separated into two halves by a white line.
- The best way to describe the field of play to someone who has never seen Kabaddi is similar to a tennis court.
- There is no special equipment in Kabaddi.
- A player entering the opposition half is a “raider,” as he looks to raid the opposition half.
- In traditional Kabaddi, a raider would have to hold their breath while entering the opposition half, but this is not required in professional Kabaddi.
Scoring
- Players can earn points by defending or attacking in Kabaddi.
- One point is scored when putting an opponent out, which can be done in two ways:
- Attacking player tags a defending player.
- Attacking player is prevented from returning to their half by defending team.
- Bonus points are also available in Kabaddi, these can be achieved by:
- Attacking player touches the bonus line in the opposition half – one point
- All of opposition team are declared out – three points
- Part of opposing teams body goes outside the boundaries – one point
Length of games
- Games are 40 minutes in length.
- The 40 minutes is split into two 20 minute halves.
- Half-time is five minutes long.
- Players get 30 seconds to raid the opposition half.
