Can you name a sport that does not require any form of equipment, yet requires a tremendous amount of teamwork? Kabaddi fulfills both criteria and, increasingly, more countries are taking an interest in this ancient South Asian sport which is aiming for Olympic status.
At the recent Bangkok Asian Games, two countries that are kabbadi newcomers, Japan and Thailand, participated in the event. Japan finished fifth behind Sri Lanka. But this came only after 10 years of hard work, said the manager for the Japanese national kabaddi team, Toshihiko Murakawa. "There are 30 teams at national level and they are all university students."
"We started only four months ago and the Asian Games is the first international tournament for us," said Tragoon Masvanich, team manager of Thailand Amateur Kabaddi Association, For now, kabaddi interest in Thailand is limited only to the national team since there are no other teams or clubs. Although the host country (of the 13th Asian Games) failed to clinch the gold medal, it was not short of fan support, which often outnumbered the number of Indian, Japanese or Pakistani supporters.
Kabaddi was first introduced internationally in 1990 in the 11th Asian Games in Beijing and was part of the 12th Asian Games in Hiroshima too. At both outings, India emerged champions with Pakistan and Bangladesh following closely.