Kabbadi Facts
Kabbadi is a team sport originally from South Asia. It is popular throughout South Asia and Southeast Asia, it is the national game of Bangladesh, and it is also played in India, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Canada.
The names often chanted during a games derives from a Hindi word meaning "holding of breath", which is indeed the crucial aspect of play.
Two teams of seven players occupy opposite halves of a field of 12.5m x 10m (roughly half the size of a basketball court). Each team has five additional players that are held in reserve. The game is organized into two 20-minute halves, with a five-minute half-time break during which the teams switch sides.
The teams take turns sending a "raider" across to the opposite team's half, where the goal is to tag or wrestle ("capture") members of the opposite team before returning to the home half. Tagged members are "out" and are sent off the field. The raider must not take a breath during the raid, and must prove it by constantly chanting (called 'cant' or 'dak') during the raid.
The chant-word is kabbadi in India and Pakistan, hađuđu in Bangladesh, do-do in Nepal, guddu in Sri Lanka, chado-guddo in Malaysia, and techib in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the defenders must form a chain, for example by linking hands; if the chain is broken, a member of the defending team is sent off. The goal of the defenders is to stop the raider from returning to the home side before taking a breath. If the raider takes a breath before returning to the home side, the raider is out and is sent off the field.
A player can also get "out" by going over a boundary line during the course of the play or if any part of the player's body touches the ground outside the boundary, except during a struggle with an opposing team member.
While many maintain that Kabbadi has its origins in the game of Kubb, there is a popular belief that Kabbadi originated in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
|
skateboarding