Know Your Heroes: Learn All About Pakistan’s Role In Kabaddi World Cup

IN THIS POST:
– Latest Scores for the Kabaddi World Cup
– 2020 Kabaddi World Cup Schedule
– Participating Teams
– Circle Style vs. Standard Style
– Rules of the Game

UPDATE (Feb 24, 2021): Pakistan has been granted rights to host two major international kabbadi events, accroding to Secretary Pakistan Kabbadi Federation (PKF) Rana Mohammad Sarwar.

“We’ve been granted the rights to host Kabaddi World Cup in October 2024 and Asia Kabaddi Cup in February 2022,” announced Sarwar, also Secretary of World Kabaddi Federation (WKF), during a ceremony at Allama Iqbal Hostel, Pakistan Sports Complex Islamabad. “Pakistan is a big power in the kabaddi world and that is evident from our successful bid for both the major events to be hosted by Pakistan within the next three years,” he added.

Sarwar also revealed plans for international matches between Pakistan and India near the Kartarpur Corridor in the near future.

On Feb. 18, President Dr Arif Alvi called for the promotion of traditional sports in Pakistan and highlighted the importance of coaching and better facilities for players to help them excel during international sports competitions. He made the statement while hosting Pakistan’s National Kabaddi team at Aiwan-e-Sadr. The president congratulated the team for winning the Kabaddi World Cup 2020 for the first time in the history of kabaddi against India. It’s important to mention here that the captain of the National Kabaddi Team, Muhammad Irfan, will reportedly be decorated with the Presidential Award of Pride of Performance on March 23, 2021.

Pakistan is hosting the Kabaddi World Cup 2020 (Circle Style) from the 9^th to the 16^th of February in Punjab. Earlier on, the tournament was scheduled to be held from the 12^th to the 19^th of January 2020, but bad weather forced the Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF) to delay the event for a month.

The Latest Updates on the Score Table

Pakistan Wins the 2020 Kabaddi World Cup!

Qualifying for the Final of the (Circle-Style) Kabaddi World Cup for the fifth time, Pakistan faced off against defending champs India for an action-packed match in Lahore on Sunday, 16th of February 2020.

After winning the toss, the Pakistani team chose to raid first but India was truly in the lead at the end of the first session after a nail-biting neck-and-neck contest. The excitement continued for the second session, where the teams were evenly matched once more, with Pakistan barely securing a two-point lead before the end of the second session, declaring them the winners of the Kabaddi World Cup 2020 (Circle Style) for the very first time.

Meanwhile, a match was also played on the same day between the runners-up of Pool A and Pool B, namely Iran and Australia, to determine the third position winner for the world cup. The match got off to a flying start but the Iranians cleared a place for themselves at the podium, securing the 3rd position overall, after beating Australia, 54-33, right before the final took place.

The winning teams took laps of honour and were awarded their respective cash prizes. The Pakistani team won Rs. 10 million, the second-position holding Indian team won Rs. 7.5 million, and Rs. 5 million were awarded to the Iranian team for claiming the third position in the tournament.

Scores for the Semi-Finals

Pakistan secured a place in the Semi-Finals of the Kabaddi World Cup 2020 along with Iran, India, and Australia. The first semi-final was played between Pakistan and Iran, where Pakistan defeated the rival Iranian team with a score of 52-30 to secure its place in the final.

India played off against Australia for the second semi-final, overpowering the Australian team with a 10-point lead, taking the total score to 42-32 in India’s favour. The Indian team has now joined Pakistan in the Final, to be played on Sunday, 16th February 2020, at the Punjab Stadium in Lahore.

Scores for the Fixtures

The Kabaddi World Cup 2020 got off to a thrilling start on the 9^th of February with host team Pakistan in Pool A and Iran in Pool B giving amazing performances. Here’s the current 2020 Kabaddi World Cup score table that will be updated regularly:

As per the latest tally, Pakistan, India, Australia, and Iran have all sealed their place in the Semi-Finals, with two fixtures left to be played on Friday. The final four will face each other, with the defending champs, India, eager to hold on to the title for another year.

Schedule for the 2020 (Circle Style) Kabaddi World Cup

The PKF had stated earlier that the matches would be held in four cities, Lahore, Kartarpur, Faisalabad, and Nankana Sahib, but has currently decided to host the matches in Lahore, Faisalabad, and Gujrat as per the released Kabaddi World Cup schedule.

The matches will be held during the afternoon to evening hours, and the Punjab Stadium had been selected as one of the venues in Lahore. Other venues include the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad and the Zahoor Elahi Stadium in Gujrat.

The tournament will start on the 9^th of February, with the finale in Lahore on the 16^th of the same month. A total of 24 matches would be played between the competing teams.

Here is a complete Kabaddi World Cup schedule for your review:

Participating Teams for the Kabaddi World Cup 2020 in Pakistan

The Kabaddi World Cup is an international event with nine teams from around the world reaching Pakistan to battle it out for the ultimate glory. The list of participating countries includes:

Difference Between Circle Style and Standard Style Kabaddi

Kabaddi is generally played in two modes; standard style and circle style. The standard version was brought into the game by the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), which took the game indoors, where it is now played on kabaddi mats measuring 13 metres by 10 metres. The circle style, though, is how the game is traditionally played, where a circle measuring a radius of 22 metres is used as the playing field.

There’s also a slight difference in the number of players for both versions. Where standard style allows 7 players weighing below 80 kilograms onto the mat, with about 5 substitutes in reserve, the circle style has 8 players, also with 5 substitutes but without any weight restrictions.

The 2020 (Circle Style) Kabaddi World Cup is being held in Pakistan, while the Kabaddi World Cup 2020 (Standard Style) will be hosted by Dubai later this year. Historically, India has hosted all the circle style world cups—6 in total till now—with the last one being held in 2016.

Rules of the Game

Kabaddi originated in Asia, where its simple format required no sophisticated equipment and was perfect to be played by the masses. Generally, for both styles of Kabaddi, the game consists of two halves, each spanning over 20 minutes. Both teams get an equal chance at defence and offence alternately. The purpose of the game is to get the highest score by either tagging or capturing the other team’s players.

The team on the offence is called ‘raiders’ as they cross over the line into their opponent’s side of the court, one-by-one, and try to tag as many of the opposing players as they can. However, only one raider must go at a time into the opponent’s court, and they must go in a specific order that they have decided beforehand.

Once in the opponent’s area, the raider must continue to yell ‘kabaddi… kabaddi… kabaddi’ loudly as he tags his rivals and returns to his side of the court without getting caught by the opponents. All of this must be done within 30 seconds, and the game uses a lot of lungpower, as the raider cannot stop yelling ‘kabaddi’ or take a breath in the rival team’s area, or else they have to return to their side of the court immediately, without scoring any points. Once one raider returns, the next one gets their chance to score some points for the team.

From the side of the defenders, they must. firstly, try not to get tagged out of the gameplay, but most importantly, they must stop the raider from successfully returning to their side of the court. They can do this by either running away from the raider or tackling the raider physically. While the defenders are allowed to grab the arms and legs of a raider to stop them, they cannot grab a raider’s clothes, head, or hair.

How to Score Points Playing Kabaddi?

There are several ways to score a point while playing Kabaddi:

• Tag as many opponent players as possible before successfully returning to your own side – 1 point for each player tagged.
• If a raider takes a breath in the opponent’s playing field – the rivals score 1 point.
• If the raiders do not raid in the specified sequence – the opposing team wins 1 point.

When Are Players Sent Out of the Game?

There are several reasons why players might be sent out of the playing field after being declared ‘out’. These include:

• All players of the rival team that are tagged by a raider before they return to their side of the field are considered ‘out’.
• If a raider is captured on the opponent’s side and cannot return to their side of the line before he runs out of breath, the raider is declared ‘out’.
• If any player steps out of the boundary lines of the court, they are ‘out’. If they were pushed or shoved, the person doing so is ‘out.
• When three consecutive raiders are unsuccessful in tagging an opponent, the third raider is declared ‘out’.
• If a defender enters the raiders’ court, the player is declared ‘out’.

It is important to note that players marked ‘out’ cannot be substituted for the players in reserve. Substitutions only take place for players that are still active in the gameplay.

How Can You Revive Players in Kabaddi?

Players that are ‘out’ can be brought back into the game based on the following rules:

• When a team sends one player of the opposing team ‘out’, the other can ‘revive’ one of their players.
• Players must be revived in the order they left the game. Otherwise, it results in a point for the opposing team.

Kabaddi is a game that calls for agility, quick reflexes, muscular coordination, and good lung capacity. The sport is played in many countries worldwide, and the Kabaddi World Cup rewards the winning teams well. The Pakistan Kabaddi Federation had declared that the circle style Kabaddi World Cup for 2020 will offer Rs. 10 million as a cash prize for the winning team, Rs. 7.5 million for the runner-up team, and Rs. 5 million for the team claiming the third position.

Stay tuned to Zameen Blog for the latest updates on all of the major happenings in Pakistan. We’ll also be updating this post as more details are announced, so don’t forget to bookmark this page. You can reach us at blog@zameen.com for any queries in the meantime.