Game on, India

In just 40 minutes in the midst of the 2014 monsoon, India’s sporting history experienced a revolution. In a country traditionally obsessed with cricket, we transformed kabaddi – a sport that was dismissed as a rural pastime, and reintroduced it to the world in a high-octane TV sporting event.

Our heart was beating with India’s. To evolve a country of nearly 1.3 billion people into a sports superpower, we have to invest in a national culture where people are genuinely interested in various sports – not just cricket. Our efforts with hockey, football and badminton had been encouraging. But kabaddi was different. It was our very own. Our desi, homegrown, full contact sport with a history and legacy that seemed to have been forgotten. In small pockets where it was played, the talent was there. Players had a burning desire to excel and become heroes but they were hardly recognised, and the fans felt abandoned.

Kabaddi was being played at a competitive level internationally. The sport became part of the Beijing Asian Games in 1990. Women’s kabaddi also got introduced in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou. India won the Gold Medal in all the editions and several kabaddi players were awarded with the prestigious Arjuna award. Sadly, in spite of the accolades, kabaddi never got its due recognition and was almost forgotten post 90’s.

Anyone born in India before the 1980s would have played kabaddi during their youth. For them, the sport was synonymous with skill, speed, strategic thinking, fitness, thrill and drama but many people from the next generation perceived it as just rural entertainment and urban India had little or no interest. This misconception had to change.

The League, promoted by Mashal Sports and Star, received a new identity. The village fields gave way to state-of-the-art indoor stadiums. We replaced the dusty mud pitches with coloured mat surface courts. Bare-bodied players now had smartly designed kits. Thumping music, firecrackers, bright lighting and high quality broadcast transformed the sport into a world-class experience. For millions, a childhood memory and an old passion were re-ignited. For young India it was a new sport that thrilled them and gave them heroes to root for.

Kabaddi now had a market. Players around the globe were screened and auctioned and teams representing eight Indian cities were born. Celebrities and India Inc. backed our efforts with Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan even buying the Jaipur team. His father and India’s greatest superstar Amitabh Bachchan sang the League’s inspirational theme song, ‘Le Panga’.

With stadiums packed out, the broadcast reached over 100 territories, including the United States, United Kingdom, Middle East and Latin America. There was another reason for fans to cheer. The League had the honour to include India’s bravest with the teams selecting 12 players from the Indian Armed Forces. Men who were not only guardians of our borders, but are also from the institutions that have brought India glory in sports, including at the Olympics.

Nearly 40% of viewers were women, making it one of the only sport that's not completely dominated by male viewers. Star’s #CROSSTHELINE campaign was not just a literal expression of kabaddi. It was about women pushing boundaries and ending stereotypes. In 2016, we introduced the Women's Kabaddi Challenge with three teams, playing on the same court as men. Kabaddi’s success was rubbing off to other women’s sport. In an ironic role-reversal, cricket was now being inspired by kabaddi with many demanding IPL to have a league just for women!

We will continue to promote and believe in kabaddi. We hope the ever-rising viewership and popularity of this resurrected Indian sport will spread to many more nations, earning it a rightful spot with other international sports.