48 Fun Facts About Kabaddi

Which epic's tale of Abhimanyu's doomed raid on an enemy formation is often likened to kabaddi?

Mahabharata tells how Abhimanyu broke alone into the enemy's chakravyuha formation and could not get back out, the same lone raid into hostile ground that the sport asks of every raider.

An Amravati institute's 1930s demonstration at which city's Olympic Games gave kabaddi its first international exposure?

Berlin's 1936 Games were the stage: the Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal, an Indian physical-training institute, sent a team to show the sport, and two years later it joined India's own national games.

How many players does each kabaddi side field on court, with reserves waiting to be substituted?

7 players a side take the court and raid in turn, since raids alternate between the two teams for the whole match, with tagged or tackled players sitting out until their side scores.

What is a kabaddi raider's repeated 'kabaddi, kabaddi', proof that the raid is made on a single breath, called?

Cant has to stay loud and clear for the whole raid; a raider who lets it lapse is penalised, and the other side takes a point.

What is it called when a kabaddi side puts every opponent off court, earning two extra points?

All out is declared when the last defender goes off; the scoring side banks two extra points and the whole opposing team walks back on court to start again.

What is a Pro Kabaddi stop by three or fewer defenders called, worth two points instead of one?

Super tackle points reward a depleted defence: the bonus applies only while a side has three or fewer players left on court, handing the team under most pressure a way back.

What does Pro Kabaddi call the raid that follows a team's two empty raids in a row?

Do-or-die raid means what it says: the raider must come back with a point, or he is declared out and the defending side takes the point instead.

What does Pro Kabaddi call a defender's haul of five or more tackle points in a single match?

High 5 is part of the scoring vocabulary of a league whose rules, its founder said, were tweaked to make matches 'more televisual' and easier for viewers to follow.

Which country handed India its first Asian Games kabaddi defeat, in a 2018 group match in Jakarta?

South Korea won 24–23, India's first loss since the sport joined the Games in 1990, and the Koreans went on to take their first silver while India settled for bronze.

Kabaddi is the official national game of which South Asian country?

Bangladesh gave the game that status in 1972, the year after independence, and its teams have since collected a string of Asian Games medals without ever taking the gold.

If five tie-break raids each leave a Pro Kabaddi playoff level, what single attempt then decides the match?

Golden raid goes to the side that wins a coin toss once five raids apiece have failed to split the teams, turning a whole playoff into a single attack.

What are a kabaddi court's side strips called, live only after the raider has touched a defender?

Lobbies widen the pitch only after contact: before a raider touches anyone, stepping into them means going out, but once a defender is tagged the chase can spill into them.

Stepping past which line with six or more defenders on court earns a kabaddi raider an extra point?

Bonus line sits a metre deeper in the defenders' half than the mark every raid must reach, and the point counts only if the raider's trailing foot is off the ground as he steps over it.

Which 2020 Hindi film stars Kangana Ranaut as a mother who returns to top-level kabaddi?

Panga's kabaddi was learned, not faked: Ranaut and the actors playing her team-mates spent months training in the sport for their roles.

Which name does western India traditionally use for kabaddi?

Hu-tu-tu is the western Indian name, while eastern India says ha-do-do and the south chedu-gudu; whatever the word, a raider repeats it aloud to prove no breath was taken.

Which Indian state drew up kabaddi's first written rules in 1921?

Maharashtra's 1921 rulebook was amended two years later and used at the first all-India tournament, the start of the sport's move from village game to organised competition.

Which broadcaster has aired Pro Kabaddi since the league's 2014 debut?

Star Sports has shown the league from its first season, and in 2015 its parent Star India went further, buying 74% of Mashal Sports, the company that owns the competition.

The first Pro Kabaddi season drew 435 million viewers, second in India only to which competition?

Indian Premier League cricket was the only competition ahead of it, fitting company for a league that copied the IPL's city-franchise model down to the player auction.

Which India captain was the priciest buy at the first Pro Kabaddi auction, going for ₹12.80 lakh?

Rakesh Kumar's record fee, paid by the Bihar franchise, was dwarfed within four years, when the top price at auction passed ₹1.5 crore, more than ten times as much.

Which Bollywood actor owns the Jaipur Pink Panthers, winners of the first Pro Kabaddi title?

Abhishek Bachchan bought in when the league launched in 2014 with eight city franchises, and his side won the title at the first attempt, then waited eight years for a second.

Which 2017 expansion franchise won its first Pro Kabaddi title in the 2024 final?

Haryana Steelers had lost the previous final to Puneri Paltan by three points, then became the first of the four sides added in 2017 to lift the trophy.

Which cricket legend was unveiled as co-owner of the Tamil Thalaivas at their 2017 launch?

Sachin Tendulkar came in as co-owner when the Chennai side launched in 2017, one of four new franchises that took the league from eight teams to twelve.

Which city's John Cain Arena hosted a Pro Kabaddi exhibition the day before the 2024 final?

Melbourne staged two exhibition matches that night, one of them pitting a league all-star side against the Aussie Raiders, a team of former Australian rules footballers.

Which Screwvala-owned side won Pro Kabaddi's second season, a year after losing the first final?

U Mumba, run by Ronnie Screwvala's Unilazer Ventures, beat Bengaluru Bulls in the 2015 final, then lost a third straight final the following season by just three points.

Which 'Dubki King' raider was the first to reach 1,000 Pro Kabaddi points, during the 2019 season?

Pardeep Narwal's dubki is a duck beneath the defenders' outstretched arms, and it kept working: he was also first past 1,500 raid points in 2022 and 1,600 a year later.

Which Iranian left-corner defender was 2018's costliest foreign buy at ₹1 crore, then 2025's MVP?

Fazel Atrachali, the first player to 500 tackle points, was signed by Dabang Delhi at his ₹30 lakh base price for 2025 and repaid them as MVP of their title-winning season.

Which Iranian defender became Pro Kabaddi's costliest overseas signing at ₹2.35 crore in 2023?

Mohammad Reza Shadloui repaid Puneri Paltan at once, finishing as the league's top tackler as they won their first title, then moved on again for more than ₹2 crore.

Which 'Hi-Flyer' raider cost a record ₹2.26 crore in 2022, only to hurt a knee in his first match?

Pawan Sehrawat's injury ended his season after one match for Tamil Thalaivas, yet a year later Telugu Titans paid ₹2.60 crore for him, breaking his own record.

Which teenage raider won the 2019 Pro Kabaddi MVP award, with a Super 10 in 22 of his 23 matches?

Naveen Kumar, the 'Naveen Express', is a bus driver's son who was 19 that season, and his raiding carried Dabang Delhi all the way to the final, where they finished runners-up.

Which 'Raid Machine' was the first player to reach 500 Pro Kabaddi raid points?

Rahul Chaudhari began his career as a defender before turning raider, and with Telugu Titans he went on to be first past 700 and 800 raid points as well.

Which 'Captain Cool' took the first Pro Kabaddi MVP award in 2014 despite losing the final?

Anup Kumar's side lost that final 35–24 to Jaipur Pink Panthers, and he later captained India to the 2016 World Cup win in Ahmedabad.

Which 'Ice Man' raider from Himachal Pradesh Police captained India through the 2018 Asian Games?

Ajay Thakur's team arrived as seven-time champions and left with bronze after a semi-final defeat, India's first Asian Games without the men's kabaddi gold.

Which Indian Army JCO became Pro Kabaddi's highest-paid player at ₹1.51 crore for the 2018 season?

Monu Goyat's fee from the Panchkula franchise beat the ₹93 lakh paid for Nitin Tomar a year earlier, and he won Asian Games bronze with India later that same year.

Which side won its first Pro Kabaddi title in 2019, beating Dabang Delhi 39-34 in the Ahmedabad final?

Bengal Warriors trailed 3–11 early in the final and were without injured captain Maninder Singh, yet fought back to lift the trophy.

Kabaddi's first Asian Games medals were decided by a round robin in which host city?

Beijing's 1990 Games brought the sport onto the full programme, and India took the only gold on league standings, without a final ever being played.

Women's kabaddi made its Asian Games debut in which 2010 host city?

Guangzhou saw India win both golds, a double it has repeated at every Games since except 2018, when both titles went elsewhere.

Where did India reclaim the men's Asian Games kabaddi gold with a 33–29 final win over Iran in 2023?

Hangzhou's controversial final gave India an eighth men's gold and put right 2018, when a semi-final defeat had ended a run of seven straight titles.

Which host won the 2020 circle-style Kabaddi World Cup, its first, over an unauthorised Indian team?

Pakistan staged the event from 9 to 16 February 2020, with an opening ceremony in Lahore, and the Indian side that reached the final took part without its federation's blessing.

Which host nation of the 2025 Kabaddi World Cup lost both of its finals to India?

England were hosting the first edition staged outside Asia and ran India close in the men's final in Wolverhampton, losing by just three points, 44–41.

Which country hosted World Kabaddi's first World Cup in 2019?

Malaysia, where the federation has its headquarters, staged it in Melaka after a postponement from April to July, and India won both titles, with Iraq second in the men's event.

Which Indian city hosted the first IKF Kabaddi World Cup in 2004, won by the hosts over Iran?

Mumbai's tournament drew national teams from Asia, Europe and North America, and India beat Iran in the final, as they have in every men's edition since.

India beat Iran 44–26 in the 2018 'Kabaddi Masters' final, a tournament staged in which Gulf city?

Dubai's final came in the same year Iran knocked India out of the Asian Games semi-final, sweet revenge for a side beaten by India in all three men's IKF World Cup finals.

Which 2020 Amazon Prime docuseries followed the Jaipur Pink Panthers through a Pro Kabaddi season?

Sons of the Soil, a five-part series from BBC Studios India, tracked the side through its 2019 campaign, and two years after its release the franchise won a second league title.

Which line in the defenders' half must a kabaddi raider cross for a raid without a touch to count?

Baulk line is the minimum a raid must reach: a raider who turns back short of it without touching anyone is out, and the other side takes the point.

Which region's state government launched the circle-style Kabaddi World Cup in 2010?

Punjab's government in India created the tournament for the region's own code, in which each raid is a one-on-one duel on a round pitch and nobody is sent off.

Which Indian industrialist co-founded Mashal Sports with broadcaster Charu Sharma to launch Pro Kabaddi?

Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, argued publicly that the sport deserved a league of its own, and the venture he co-founded drew 435 million viewers in its first season.

Which side won three Pro Kabaddi titles in a row across 2016 and 2017?

Patna Pirates won both of 2016's seasons and then the expanded 2017 edition, beating Gujarat's newcomers 55–38 in that final, a treble no other side had matched by 2025.

Sold-out crowds at which city's Asian Games convinced Charu Sharma that kabaddi could carry a professional league?

Doha's 2006 tournament had fans telling Sharma they could not get tickets, and eight years later his league launched with eight city franchises.