Explained: Behind kabaddi player’s murder, high stakes in rural game, fight for players

What are these Kabaddi Tournaments or cup played in Punjab and how popular are these?

The game of Kabaddi is as old as the recorded history of Indian subcontinent. It has been played in Punjab’s rural hinterland since time immemorial, earlier for recreational purpose and now for recreational as well as commercial purpose. The kabaddi tournaments are organised in Punjab mostly during winters — from November to March — by village level Kabaddi Committees, Kabaddi Clubs or Kabaddi Federations. Most major tournaments are held during February and March. Apart from entertaining the general public and motivating youngsters to keep healthy and stay from away from drugs, the game has become a profession for several who now depend on the Kabaddi to earn their living.

The kabaddi tournaments are very popular annual events both in villages as well as abroad among the Punjabi people who wait eagerly for such events. The matches are broadcast live online often garnering view in lakhs.

Currently, most of these tournaments are facilitated by the Kabaddi Federations, mostly formed by Punjabis here or settled abroad in the UK, the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and other countries where Punjabis are present in a significant numbers. After the tournaments, which start by November and end by march, get over in India, several teams move abroad to play in events organised in other countries in the remaining months of the year.

What is the role kabaddi federations in organising the Kabaddi tournaments?

Kabaddi is not an organised game. To give it professional makeover, a culture of setting up Kabaddi Federations began about two decades back. Currently in Punjab there are four federations — North India Kabaddi Federation formed over 20 years ago; Punjab Kabaddi Academy Association, which has been active for the past 15 years; the Punjab Kabaddi Association which was formed a decade back but is not very active on the ground; and Major Kabaddi League Federation that was formed by UK-based international athlete Sandeep Singh in 2019.

On similar lines, several such federation have been formed by Punjabis in various countries.

Every federation has several teams, which are owned by the individuals or a group, associated with them. For example Major League and North India federations have 12 and 14 teams, respectively, associated with them.

Village kabaddi committees often reach out to such federations for sending teams and provide technical support such as referees and scorers to organise their tournaments. The federations also engage labs for conducting dope tests on the players. Most of the tournaments have eight participating teams and often the event is just day-long. A match lasts for around 30 minutes and the number of players in a team varies from 10 to 20.

Sandeep Singh Sandhu aka Sandeep Nangal Ambian was shot dead on March 14. (Twitter)

What is locus standi of these federations?

Anyone can form a federation by getting registered a name under the Societies Act. These federations are not affiliated with Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), which is the national sports body for the sport. The AKFI is affiliated to the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF), and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), and is recognized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India.

The federations formed by Punjabis here and abroad are unrecognized, but they do facilitate in organizing tournaments in state as well as in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other countries with sizeable diaspora. The federations are paid by the tournament organizers for bringing teams to participate in the events. On their part, the federations pay the players and the winning and qualifying teams, keeping aside their own commission. For players and the federations, the big money is in paying abroad where they get paid in dollars.

Sandeep Nangal Ambian was killed on March 14. (Twitter)

How high are the stakes involved in the game?

The federations, which have better teams with renowned players, command higher fee. Besides the commercial side, it also raises the respect and standing of the promoters of the federation in the Punjabi community. There is a lot of professional rivalry among the federations. UK-based Balwinder Singh, who is the senior office bearer of England Kabaddi Federation UK, said that Sandeep Singh was fighting for the rights of the players.

Sandeep introduced the ‘Drug Abuse Prevention Code’ to make the game free from the usage of any kind of narcotic substance. Also their doping tests were of the highest level and WADA (World Anti-doping Agency) compliant. “The other federations also claim to be conducting anti-doping tests, but there’s not much credibility of such tests,” said a UK-based senior player. Sandeep was in favour of introducing insurance policy for the players. Because of this, several great players wanted to play in the federation led by Sandeep. This did not go down well with some Punjabis engaged in kabaddi business. He was eventually killed.

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