Summer Extravaganza - Sunny Sports

For the last two days of the subseries 'Sunny Sports' we are going to see facts on a Tag Game. The Tag Game is Kabaddi. Today we will be looking at general information on the sport of Kabaddi and the Gameplay of Kabaddi. Before moving on...let me tell you that the Factorium has been redesigned and I have added some pages which convey information on The FactBook, The Factorium and some External links.

Kabaddi is a team contact sport that originated in India. Two teams occupy opposite halves of a field and take turns sending a "raider" into the other half, in order to win points by tagging or wrestling members of the opposing team; the raider then tries to return to his own half, holding his breath and chanting "kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi" during the whole raid. The name often chanted during a game derives from a Hindi word meaning "holding of breath", which is indeed the crucial aspect of play. It is the national game of Bangladesh, and the state game of Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in India. India is currently the undisputed champion in this sport. The game in India is governed by a body called The Kabaddi Federation of India which was founded in 1950.

Now we will look at the international rules of the game as given by the International Governing body. In the international team version of kabaddi, two teams of seven members each occupy opposite halves of a field of 13m × 10m in case of men and 12m X 10m in case of women and the game is played in 2 20 minute halves. Teams take turns sending a "raider" to the opposite team's half, where the goal is to tag the opposite team member. Tagged members are "out" and temporarily sent off the field. The raider is sent off the field if If the raider takes a breath before returning or if the raider crosses boundary line or a part of the raider'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 categorized based on age and weight. Six officials supervise a match: one referee, two umpires, a scorer and two assistant scorers.