Tag-hour at Shivaji Park

For Kho Kho beats to its own unique vibe.

There’s no big bucks here,though nothing stopped organisers from coming up enthusiastically with the usual creative alliterations – Thane Thunderers,Sangli Smashers besides the Mumbai Riders,Suburban Yoddhas,Pune Fighters and Ahmednagar Heroes,while naming the six 12-member teams. The budget of the entire Kho Kho league is Rs 15 lac. That might be the laundry bills of one IPL years,the Kho Kho guys chucklingly say,while happily accepting the novelty of being lodged in hotels for a week. It’s a definite upgrade from crashing at dorms and hostels,sharing loos,and eating from heaps at a mess. Not that they ever bothered cribbing even as crowds continued to endorse their sport in dusty makeshift stadiums,like they so often do for akhada dangals and kabaddi.

But for the longest,Kho-Kho has been dubbed the poor country cousin of even Kabaddi,watching wide-eyed as Kabaddi took off after the 1982 Asiad where both were demonstration sports,and became a stable fixture at the Asian level,while Kho Kho remained the dwarfer of the two country tag-sports.

Organised by a set up of a handful of players who came together in the game about two and half decades ago when they were part of the University of Mumbai team and went on to earn laurels at the state and national level,the franchisees are predominantly local corporators nursing their neighbourhoods and more attuned to the streets and its abundant talent that is bred in corporation schools and chawl neighbourhoods. From a trade union leader to a political party spokesman to a corporator from Pune’s Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and finally an ex-player,franchise owners have picked up teams in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lac,and are hoping for the Rs 60,000 top prize.

Kabaddi held its own premier league at Vijayawada recently but Kho Kho is banking on its own loyal support base that saw a Lalbaug tourney two years ago,packed to the last empty space and its ready entertainment package. Played over 4 innings of 9 minutes each,the tournament under floodlights is expected to draw in the office-returning crowd at Dadar and provide a three-hour packge over 3-4 matches even as Kho Kho’s top players – the numbers will surprise you – join promising juniors,some winners of Abhimanyu awards given to sprightly teen talent. Complete with the fast sprints,the thrilling chases and athletic dives,Kho Kho was played for well over a century with the first ever match played at the Deccan Gymkhana in Pune in the year 1914. Most popular in Maharashtra,Madhya Pradesh,Gujarat,Punjab and Karnataka in India,Pakistan and South Africa also have teams internationally.

Quizzed on how the event will attract any spectators at all with the IPL tipped to be in full swing then,an organiser said,”None of this matters to Kho Kho,they manage to get in the crowds anyway. They don’t go looking for mileage and are happy with the spontaneous support they get. Two years ago,the nationals held in Mumbai were a huge success. During the first IPL,the vernacular newspapers still carried a picture of a man of the kabaddi tournament in a tournament at Panvel. It’s tough to explain how and why,but it works. So,there’s nothing to fear from IPL.” Kho Kho players – like their game – chase and pursue no one else,but their own.