Featuring
Narayanappa Janardhan
Research Director,
Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy
As a school kid in the 1970s and 1980s, my parents discouraged me from indulging in – either as a player or spectator – traditional Indian sports like kabaddi (combo of tag and wrestling) and kho-kho (another variation of tag) because they were not suited for “educated” and “decent” middle- or upper-class children.
Indeed, apart from tennis, they discouraged me from pursuing any sport too seriously, other than as a casual form of exercise and recreation, because sport doesn’t help you “earn” a living. But tennis was different – for aspiring, progressive, socially-upwardly-mobile families, it was “cool” to be associated with sports patronized by the affluent.
I chuckle when I think of my parents’ admonition not to be distracted from serious business pursuits by sport, because sport seems to become an ever more formidable industry (and dominant form of media) by the day, one in which many people seem to be making a decent living. Witness the worldwide excitement about the coming FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America. And in India, as our economy grows, so does our passion for playing and watching different sports. A country best known for cricket and hockey in the past is now ‘having its moment’ with chess, badminton, golf, football, and basketball, among others. This was evident in the pandemonium surrounding Lionel Messi’s tour in India last December.
The success of the Indian (cricket) Premier League since 2008 made the Board of Control for Cricket in India the richest cricket governing body in the world, with broadcasting revenue as the backbone. Hockey, football, badminton, volleyball, kabaddi and kho-kho followed suit, creating new entertainment avenues and life-changing income opportunities for athletes from the Indian hinterland.
Today, indulging in tennis remains an “exercise” twice a week for me, while the supposedly “lower” class kabaddi and kho-kho are pan-India (even international) entertainment blockbusters, viewed by millions of fans from all walks of life. This debunks the perception that traditional sports have no skin in the game in the modern era, or that digital games are responsible for wiping out traditional ones.
This is an opportune moment to draw attention to these less celebrated sports, which are getting a new lease on life due to the advent of professional leagues and the games getting broadcast on various new media platforms for a nominal fee during the last decade.
Kabaddi is a contact team sport played between two teams with seven players each. A “raider” enters the opposing half of the court to tag the defenders and attempts to return within 30 seconds without being tackled. The raider continuously chants the word ‘kabaddi,’ without pausing for breath. Points are awarded for successful tags, while defenders earn a point for tackling the raider. Tagged or tackled players are temporarily out of the game but can re-enter when their team scores. Raids alternate between teams throughout the game.
The term kabaddi is derived from Tamil, a South Indian language. It is a derivation of “kai” and “pidi,” meaning “to hold hands,” which is a formation among the teams while tackling a raider. Although accounts of kabaddi are found in ancient India, the game was popularised as a competitive sport in the 20th century. Over the past decade of the 21st century, it has become the third most-viewed sport in India after cricket and football.
Less popular and viewed, but equally exhilarating, is kho-kho. It’s played on a rectangular court with a central lane connecting two poles at either end of the court. Nine players from the chasing team are on the court during the game, with eight of them crouched on one knee in the centre, while three runners from the defending team run around the court trying to avoid being touched. Each sitting player on the chasing team faces the opposite half of the field that their adjacent teammates are facing.
In the game, the chaser may run around the court to tag or touch members of the defending team. Each successful tag earns one point, and tagged defenders must leave the field. However, the twist lies in the chaser being restricted from crossing the centre line to access the other half of the court and cannot change direction once he or she has started running toward either pole.
These restrictions can only be bypassed when the active chaser either switches roles with a crouched teammate – by touching them on the back while saying “kho” – who is facing the other half of the court, or by running behind either pole to switch direction or halves. Each team alternates between scoring and defending, with two turns for each role. Each turn lasts nine minutes, and the team with the highest score at the end of the game wins.
Both sports, once played barefoot and on dusty grounds, have now gotten a makeover. Televised league games are now held on matted arenas in stadiums, with the players using attractive kits to turn a rustic sport into a sensational spectacle.
According to a 2025 KPMG report, the Indian sports market is currently estimated at $19 billion, growing 12% to 14% annually. With exponential investments, the market is estimated to more than double in less than a decade. The Pro Kabaddi League, which started in 2014 and now has over 300 million viewers across the Indian social spectrum and a few million international viewers from Asian countries. With their blend of athleticism, energy, and strategy, kabaddi, and kho-kho are being monetized through television and other digital broadcasts, attracting a new generation of fans and reviving their popularity in the Indian traditional sports ecosystem.
The kabaddi league witnessed 17% growth in its 10th edition in 2024 over the previous season. Similarly, digital advertisement rates rose by 12% and urban viewership grew 57%.
Ultimate Kho-Kho (league), established in 2022, now has six teams representing different Indian cities and a viewership base of about 64 million. Seeking a huge return on relatively small investments, investors are betting on n these unsung sports leagues and reaping huge rewards.
Interestingly, women have also made a mark in these sports, even though their income and stardom are outshined by the Indian women’s cricket team that won the 2025 One Day International World Cup in 2025 after defeating Australia in the semifinal and South Africa in the final. The four Indian women representing England at the Kabaddi World Cup in 2025 showcased how the sport had gone global, serving as a soft power tool for India, while also impacting the domestic lower classes, especially women.
This international arc parallels that of the free-style dancers from the slums of India, who have made it to the America’s Got Talent and its equivalent digital reality shows in other parts of the world, including India, frequently in recent years .While none of the participating or winning dancers became worldwide celebrities, they definitely moved up the social (class) hierarchy by earning more through the broadcast shows than they would have done otherwise. The fact that their performances also motivated many others like them to dream big is a bonus.
With kabaddi and kho-kho witnessing revival, other traditional sports like lagori (or seven stones) and gilli danda (or tipcat) are seemingly no longer destined for the dustbin of history. They would certainly be reimagined and revived through digital platforms that make these heritage-rich pastimes both entertaining for the viewers and monetized by players and investors.
It is ironic how modern technologies and the capital imperatives of media and equity investors are conspiring to give India’s traditional indigenous sports a radical makeover. I am keen to watch and enjoy them for what they are, without the stigma of class biases that were thrust on my relationship with sport during my younger years.