India leading the charge in kabaddi’s Olympic quest, says PKL commissioner

Kabaddi has potential to be in Olympics, said Pro Kabaddi League commissioner.

Kabaddi is looking for a spot in Olympics with international federations looking for ways to stage the India-grown sport at the biggest sporting event, Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) commissioner Anupam Goswami has said.

The league and the sport finding traction in markets outside India is making a strong case for kabaddi as an Olympic sport, he said.

"There are some interesting expressions of the sport that have been there in the last two months. One is there was an All Africa Kabaddi Championships in Kenya. It would have been very challenging. Kabaddi faces challenges in even a country like India but the Kenyan authorities who organised the African Kabaddi Championships they have to be really applauded," said Goswami.

Poland is the new country where the sport is being looked at. "Poland is about to conduct the European Kabaddi Championships which, by the way, are going to be beach kabaddi. And they are managing participants from about eight countries for women and about 12 countries for men,” he said.

The Indian government has to recognise that there are green shoots for kabaddi in various parts of the world. “And if we have to take it (Kabaddi) to the Olympics, these green shoots will have to be well taken care of and allowed to grow," he said.

The government is interested in pushing for three sports in Olympics —yoga, Kho Kho and kabaddi, the PKL commissioner said citing a report.

Kabaddi is a world class sport with strongly defined and active elements of strategy, skill, athletic capacity in game play. The Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India and the International Kabaddi Federation have succeeded to taking the sport up to a certain level. It is a medal discipline at the Asian Games. “There are a couple of strong countries and medal contenders outside India. So, to that extent, it has a strong international footprint," Goswami said.

PKL has a wide reach and can help grow audience at all stages including the Olympics . "We are way ahead of every other sport outside cricket when it comes to cumulative reach. While cricket is still stratospheric, PKL is growing strongly. For cumulative reach, we have gone up from 180 million for season 8 to 222 million for season 9 to 251 million for season 10," he added.

One factor which impresses people who are in charge of the process of selecting a sport to be part of Olympics is the way the sport is consumed, Goswami said.

"I think the fact that India brings so much to the sport of Kabaddi, as well as to a very high quality league for that sport, can be a very strong driver for the sport to move up the value chain to the Olympics," he added.