Introduction to Kabaddi: The most interesting sport in the world

The masses have spoken, and most people want a special post about Kabaddi. As a disclaimer, this is a completely serious post, unlike most of the ones before.

Kabaddi is a sport that originated in India, probably when it was developed as a very simple game with no need for expensive equipment. Since then, it has spread in popularity throughout parts of Southern and Western Asia, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, and even reached as far as South Korea. If you've never seen it, think of it as a combination of Red Rover, and Team Tag. I very much enjoyed watching Kabaddi on TV while in India. It's clearly the most interesting Indian sport.

Here are a few pictures to tide you over:

The basics of the game are as follows, roughly, for the international rules of this sport and the Indian Pro Kabaddi League. The Indian World Kabaddi League has different rules. There are also tons of international variations, so this is what I gathered to be the most interesting type of Kabaddi, though it might not correspond completely to a specific league.
-Each team has a number of players, each on their own side. Each team alternates sending a single player over to the otherside, where the goal is to touch an opponent and then return to your own side.
-This scores one point for your team, and it removes the touched opponent.
-If your team was originally down one or more players, whenever you score a point, you can recover a lost player.
-When you are on the other side, the other team is allowed to tackle you, or push you out of bounds. If this occurs before you reach your side, then you are out and the other team scores a point, leading to a recovery of their own lost player, if applicable.
-The entire team may attempt to tackle you.
-You may touch as many players as you like while you are on the other side. If you get back successfully, they are all out and you score than many points.
-If the entire other team is out, you score 3 points.
-You may also score a point by touching the baseline and retreating as well.
-The big catch is that for the entire time that you are on the other side, you cannot breathe, and you must continue to say the word "Kabaddi" the entire time. The word itself means nothing.
-If a bunch of people try to tackle you, and you get back to your side, they are all out, so some strategy exists as to what you want to do when attempting to tackle someone.
-There are also tons of nuances of the game, that you can only get by watching or participating. I leave it to you to do so.
-You see how in the first picture up to, those two guys are just standing there doing nothing? It's because they can't actually do anything other than watch and cheer on their own guy.
-Because of some cheating, some of the modern leagues don't even check whether you are breathing or not or even saying "Kabaddi", now they just have a "shot clock" and when time is up, your turn is over. Since it's pretty hard to judge if someone is breathing and saying "Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi" the whole time.

Here's an exciting video of Kabaddi at a recent Asian games. It's Iran (red) vs. India (white):

Note that in some Indian leagues, like the World Kabaddi League, you may only touch one opponent, and then that opponent is the only one who is able to attempt to tackle you. I think this is a stupid rule and reduces Kabaddi to a series of wrestling matches.

This is my third favorite sport to watch. My first two are cycling and biathlon. I haven't done a biathlon post yet, but that will be coming shortly. Note that I may also do an upcoming post about advanced techniques and strategies in Kabaddi. If you're interested, please check out the wikipedia page, and there are probably very popular movies and TV shows that you've seen that have featured Kabaddi, according to Wikipedia. America has two teams in the inferior World Kabaddi League, so if you're interested, please check that out, even though it is an inferior league.

In addition, I will be organizing a Kabaddi match in Boston sometime this summer. Please let me know if you are interested.

Also note that I've disabled anonymous comments. Please put your money where your mouth is from now on.

Finally, tomorrow I will have a guest post by an anonymous loyal reader. He or she refuses to acknowledge his or her own name.