History

The origin of Kabaddi can be traced to pre-historic times when man learned how to defend in groups against animals or attack weaker animals individually or in groups for survival and food. Though Kabaddi is primarily an South Asian game, not much is known about the origin of this game. There is, however, concrete evidence, that the game is 4,000 years old.

The Kabaddi Federation of India (KFI) was founded in 1950, and it compiled a standard set of rules. The Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) was founded in 1973. The AKFI has given new shape to the rules and it has also the rights of modification in the rules. The Asian Kabaddi Federation was founded under the chairmanship of Sharad Pawar.

Kabaddi is a very popular game in Bangladesh, especially in the villages it is also called the 'game of rural Bengal'. In some areas Kabaddi is also known as Ha-du-du. But despite its popularity Ha-du-du had no definite rules and it used to be played with different rules in different areas. Ha-du-du was given the name Kabaddi and the status of National Game of Bangladesh in 1972.

Bangladesh Amateur Kabaddi Federation was formed in 1973. It framed rules and regulations for the game. Bangladesh first played a Kabaddi test in 1974 with a visiting Indian team, which played test matches with the district teams of Dhaka, Tangail, Dinajpur, Jessore, Faridpur and Comilla. In 1978, the Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation was formed at a conference of delegates from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan in the Indian town of Villai.

In 1979, a return test between Bangladesh and India was held in various places throughout India including Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Punjab. The Asian Kabaddi Championship was successfully arranged in 1980 and India emerged as the champion and Bangladesh as the runners-up. Bangladesh became runners-up again in 1985 in Asian Kabaddi Championship held in Jaipur, India. The other teams included in the tournament were Nepal, Malaysia and Japan.

Kabaddi was played as a demonstration sport at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The game was included for the first time in Asian Games held in Beijing in 1990. Eight countries took part including India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. India won the gold medal and has since won gold at the following three Asian Games in Hiroshima in 1994, Bangkok in 1998 and Busan in 2002.