England eyeing India upset at Kabaddi World Cup

Kabaddi’s fast-paced international expansion could be bad news for the sport’s traditional powerhouse as England captain Hardeep Singh plots a sensational end to the 2025 World Cup in the West Midlands.

Fans of a certain age may well recall a brief period in the mid-1990s when the breathless Indian sport was broadcast across the UK on Saturday mornings as part of Channel 4’s popular Trans World Sport show.

Kabaddi – which involves teams of players who earn points by crossing into their opponent’s territory to tag them and return safely – is the second most watched sport in India behind cricket, regularly hauling in over 200 million TV viewers.

Unsurprisingly India have dominated every international tournament to date, and their men’s team, who hail from the fully professional Pro Kabaddi League, are unbackable favourites to extend that run in the first World Cup ever to be staged outside Asia.

But having thumped Hungary by a record-breaking 101-25 on the tournament’s opening day, Singh believes his England team – who play in the much more modest British Kabaddi League, which was inaugurated three years ago – can push India close.

“We think we can get to the final and give India a good game,” Singh told the PA news agency. “They are seen as invincible because it’s their national sport and they have so much heritage. But we will be ready to have that fight.”

Singh, who is from Wolverhampton where he works as a medical sales rep, took up the sport four years ago after giving up a career in freestyle wrestling.

“When I started playing kabaddi I never thought it would get this far, and hosting a World Cup in my home town makes it particularly special,” he added.

“It’s a crazy sport and it’s got everything. There’s so much potential for kabaddi in this country, provided there is enough support and funding at grass-roots level.”

England’s women’s team made a winning start in the initial round-robin phase on Tuesday, beating Hungary 85-15. Men’s and women’s teams from Scotland and Wales are also taking part.

England women’s captain Athira Sunil took up the sport at school in Kerala after changing from badminton. Now living in Newcastle where she works in the medical profession, she frequently undertakes a seven-hour round trip to train with her team in Birmingham.

“The sport is gaining so much more interest across the world these days, and England are gaining players from sports like rugby and wrestling, so they already come with good speed and techniques,” said Sunil. “I think the future for the sport in this country is very good.”

There is already hope that kabaddi’s expansion beyond its traditional strongholds in South Asia could result in kabaddi ultimately being included on the Commonwealth Games or even Olympic programme.

Commonwealth Games Federation president Chris Jenkins was an enthusiastic spectator on the second day of the event in Wolverhampton on Tuesday, and plans are understood to have been made to showcase the sport within the truncated Games programme in Glasgow next year.

Jenkins said: “It’s the first time I’ve been to a kabaddi event and it’s blown me away. The atmosphere and the chanting, and the match itself is really physical and very exciting.

“Throughout the Commonwealth there are lots of traditional sports, but this one is huge in India and here too. It’s been a really exciting event.”