The International Kabaddi Federation has announced that 2016 Kabaddi World Cup will be hosted in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in October.
The International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) has announced that the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup will be hosted in Ahmedabad, Gujarat between October 7 and 22. The tournament will be held in Ahmedabad's upcoming high-tech stadium, The Arena.
The event will see participation of 12 Kabaddi teams from around the world representing all the five geographies of the Olympic Games. These 12 teams include India, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Iran, Australia, Poland, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Korea, Japan and Kenya. The matches will be aired exclusively on the Star Sports network and HotStar. Star Sports will be the official broadcaster of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup.
A special consideration of the IKF is inviting these countries to make the Kabaddi World Cup representative of all the five geographies of the Olympic Games. Importantly, in the recently concluded Olympic gaomes kabaddi was not included. Countries such as Argentina, Denmark, Thailand, etc. have also shown keen interest to attend the international kabaddi body. The IKF has therefore invited the top ranked Asian countries to Ahmedabad as observers to the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup, and to join in IKF's future global plans for the game.
Kabaddi is considered a contact sport that had originated in ancient India. Kabaddi is an umbrella term which encompasses various forms of the game including International rules Kabaddi. In India, it is the state game of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. It also encompasses similar sports known by their regional names in Indian states such as sadugudu in Tamil Nadu, chedugudu in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and hututu in Maharashtra. It is also the national game of Bangladesh and is known as hadudu.