THE PROFESSIONAL KABADDI LEAGUE—A “CRAZE’. I posted here about kabaddi, which seems to be the oldest team game (Guatama Buddha is said to have played it). I posted here about the rules of kabaddi. Team take turns sending a “raider” into the other team’s territory to tag opponents. The defenders try to tackle the raider and hold him until he has to draw a breath. The raider chants the word “kabaddi” to prove that he or she is not breathing in.
Sean McLain had an article (with photographs) in the August 27 Wall Street Journal about the success of a new Indian professional kabaddi league (the headline refers to a “kabaddi craze”). The league is drawing sellout crowds, and, reports McLain, “Nearly 220 million Indians tuned in to watch the first eight days of Pro Kabaddi….” For comparison, McLain points out that only half that many people in India watched the first eight days of this year’s World Cup.