Hambantota 2011

Beach Kabaddi is basically a combative sport, with four players on each side; played for a period of 15 minutes with a 5 minutes break (15-5-15). The core idea of the game is to score points by raiding into the opponent's court and touching as many defence players as possible without getting caught on a single breath.

One player, chanting Kabaddi!!! Kabaddi!!!! Kabaddi!!!! charges into the opponent court and tries to touch the opponent closest to him, while the four opponents make manoeuvres to catch the attacker. The players on the defensive side are called “Antis” while the player of the offence is called the “Raider”.

The attack in Kabaddi is known as a ‘Raid’. This is Beach Kabaddi, the match of one against four which has all the ingredients of thrill, skill and dare. The origin of the regular or principle form of Kabaddi dates back to pre-historic times played in different forms.

The modern Kabaddi game was played all over India and some parts of South Asia from 1930. The past decade has seen manifest changes in the regular Kabaddi, which took on diverse forms to adapt itself to different climates, tastes and environment.

The recognized forms of Kabaddi are the Regular Kabaddi, Indoor Kabaddi, Circle Style Kabaddi and the Beach Kabaddi.

All these forms of Kabaddi have different set of rules, different logistic requirements, different playfields and varied number of players. What they share in common, however, is the public appeal since all these forms of Kabaddi display Thrill, Skill and Dare.

All these forms of Kabaddi are under the umbrella of the Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation [AAKF] & the International Kabaddi Federation [IKF].

The Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation [AAKF] was formed in the year 1978. The 1st Asian Kabaddi Championship was held in the year 1980 and was included as a demonstration game in the 9th Asian Games, New Delhi in the year 1982.

The game was included in the South Asian Federation (SAF) games from the year 1984 at Dacca, Bangladesh. Kabaddi was included as a regular sports discipline in the 11th Beijing Asian Games 1990, Hiroshima 1994, Bangkok 1998, Busan 2002 & at Doha 2006.

The International Kabaddi Federation [IKF] was formed during the 1st World Cup in Kabaddi 2004 at Mumbai in India. The First Asian Women Championship was held at Hyderabad in 2005.

Women Kabaddi was included for the first time in the South Asian Games held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2006. The second World Cup was held in India at Panvel in 2007. The 15th Asian Games Doha provided an excellent opportunity to showcase Kabaddi to the Europeans and Australians who were present in great numbers in organizing the Asian Games.

A good number of spectators belonging to European countries, USA, Australia, Western Asia, and the Mediterranean countries, who saw the Game for the first time, were very impressed with the simple rules and the thrill of the sport and desired to introduce the sport in their countries.

This gave Kabaddi very good and positive exposure which augured well for its future development in the continents of Europe, USA, Australia and Africa.

Kabaddi was included in the 2nd Asian Indoor Games held at Macau in 2007. The inclusion of Kabaddi in the 1st Bali Asian Beach Games 2008 in Indonesia is a major landmark in the history of the game.

The excellent presentation of Kabaddi in the 15th Doha Asian Games gave very positive results and Kabaddi has secured a foothold in a number of countries in the West, including Canada, West Indies, France, U.K, Italy etc.

Among the various forms of Kabaddi, Beach Kabaddi is gaining unprecedented popularity, due to the easy to comprehend rules, no equipment required and since Beach Kabaddi can be played without any artificial surface or any special kit such as shoes etc.

Most Beach Games are ball games and Beach Kabaddi is unique in the sense that it