Kabaddi is an idea that has worked as a marketable sporting event

Lakshmana Venkat Kuchi *

We all know what happens if there is a good idea – it can take a popular game and make it super popular and hurl it into the stratosphere, like Indian Premier League did to cricket and cricketers – even those who never could hope to play for India became stars in their own right, by landing roles in one of the many teams that battle it out for the top honours every year. There is now obscenely huge amount of money to be made, even by the kind who were also ran in the previous generations of cricketers.

Now what happens if a similar good idea occurs in the mind of the sports management professionals–say for example those running the rustic rural sport of Kabaddi–and turn this action-packed physical contact sport played in almost every village of India into a sporting career that only cricketers could dare to dream to achieve.

Whoever spotted the ‘made-for-television’ sport of Kabaddi, was bang on, given the stupendous growth of television audiences for professional Kabaddi League, which has in just ten years transformed the game, and the lives of those playing the sport–many of whom today have become household names, and more important, objects of desire among marriageable girls. Yes, once their earning capacity, and their physical prowess are on display, it is no surprise that Kabaddi players of today have hit the bull’s eye–in earning money, fame, wealth and …. the good things in life.

Just yesterday, the 9th edition of the Pro-Kabaddi League got kicked off at Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune in which 12 teams will be vying for the top honours. Now, what makes Kabaddi saleable, and exciting, is the association of top celebrities with the rustic rural sport–Sachin Tendulkar, Abhishek Bachchan–business tycoons Adani and Parth Jindal, to name a few.

For the Kabaddi players, the facelift given to the sport and its transformation into a highly marketable and marketed physical contact sport, by adding elements that make it absolutely the right fit for television viewing, is something that has made their life, meaningful and money-full.

It was ten years ago, Marshal Sports, event organisers took the rural Indian sports on a world tour–so to speak–bringing it in front of an urban audience that grew up on a staple of cricket, football, tennis, badminton and track and field athletics.

Kabaddi has potential as it today is an amalgamation of skill sets required in different sporting disciplines as will be evident when Kabaddi players will be in action over the next three months. It promises to be a non-stop entertainment with pulsating action for the sports lovers as athletes from 12 competing teams take the field.

For sure a subject matter of a case study–the sexing up of rustic rural sport–and what makes it tick with television sporting event managers.

From just a game that was largely played by have-nots in villages to its current day status as a Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) means that big money rides on the sport and the sportspersons connected with it. In fact, the entire ecosystem is now getting built over the sport, which is gaining popularity in other parts of the world as well. But sure, it has a long, long way to go, but for those connected to the sport, real Ache Din are already here.

Kabaddi and Kho Kho were two popular sports that every school, mostly the Government run, and Government aided schools offer, probably also because there is no need for any special equipment or infrastructure for playing the sport. Which means, anyone was free to play. The other day, I got chatting with Ravi Shetty, a former Kabaddi player who played for India and now the coach of Patna Pirates, a team that won three of the KPL titles so far and could detect a sense of elation in him that the sport has begun to mean business now.

For sure, Shetty and players like him who earlier though they got a raw deal, are today reaping the benefit because Kabaddi itself has got transformed into a money spinner. There is an everlasting and never ending stream of supply of young sporting talent when it came to Kabaddi, from villages and semi-urban settings.

But this is not to say that city dwellers are missing from action on this front–today Kabaddi is also attracting participation from youth in cities as well–perhaps inspired by the success stories of players from poor economic background making a mark in their life–through high professional fees, popularity and stardom to boot. Kabaddi today has also become a viable career option as police, army and para military forces do give a favourable consideration to Kabaddi players, and some organisations even have Kabaddi players recruited through the sports quota.

In the truest of senses, players, ex-players and administrators of the sport all are happy over the “privatisation of Kabaddi” in 2014, when PKL commenced as a televised sporting event that slowly expanded its footprint across the country and won viewership from across the country, and even abroad thanks to the Indian diaspora.

For sure, earlier when Shetty was representing India in Kabaddi, the pride to represent India was very much there among all sportspersons, but there was a tinge of sadness too over an apparent neglect of the sport at the cost of cricket–just like the bemoaning of people connected with other spots when it came to popularity media support and Government attitude. Today Kabaddi players get an opportunity to get absorbed in Railways, Army, police and para military forces, and public sector companies.

But once, the potential was assessed and the sport was re-packed with changes in rules and regulations and adding interesting elements–sending the fortunes of the game and the players to an upward swing. And why not.

The Kabaddi players must display multi-faceted skills–those of a footballer, a rugby player, a wrestler, a chess player and an athlete. The sort duration of the match, 40 minutes, lends it an ability to become a television sport, and one that is rich in its emotional, dramatic content. The involvement t of celebrities only added to the saleability of the sport.

Introduction of more competitive elements in the sport–like Super Tackle (when three or less players on the mat make a successful tackle) needing grit, technique, and strength to pull it off–have made the game more interesting for the viewers. Greater use of technology has come into play, like in other sports.

Today even corporate sector is encouraging Kabaddi. It is the money that makes the mare go–and for the present, Kabaddi has become the chosen one, from amongst the rural sport.

Today, a Kabaddi player must have the thinking capabilities of a chess player, skills of a rugby player (to carry out tackles), skills of a wrestler for handling different kinds of tackles, Shetty said. Kabaddi needs skills of various sports and packs different actions into just 40 minutes, and this makes for good television.

Now the game has display of different skills–sliding, jumps–and introduction of baulk line, bonus line for the raiders and elements that increased scope for competition makes the game more interesting for the viewers. Besides the game has become racier, pacier and more interesting.

Kabaddi appears to have a bright future as a competitive global sport, and the Government can take lead in this matter as well and popularise the sport across the world.