How Kabaddi innovated to hog the national limelight via PKL

Very few sports in India boast of a strong connection with its roots and traditions.

Kabaddi is one such sport passed on over several generations as a medium for entertainment and display of strength. However, the indigenous sport was screaming for attention, and its popularity was limited to pockets like Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.

And it wasn't until the Pro Kabaddi League in 2014, that a larger audience began taking note.

The thrill and relentless action on the mat, which lasted 40 minutes, drew spectators and built a captive television audience. Slowly but surely, Kabaddi became the second most-watched franchise league behind the Indian Premier League (IPL).

But it took a set of smart innovations to turn the traditional game into the hugely popular spectator and broadcast-friendly franchise sport it has become.

"There are many countries that take their traditional sports seriously like China (Wushu), Japan (Sumo Wrestling), and Korea (Taekwondo) but we Indians failed to present Kabaddi properly," said E. Prasad Rao, the technical director of the Pro Kabaddi League, in an exclusive chat with The Bridge.

Popularly known as 'Kabaddi Rao', the man is known for his impeccable knowledge of the game. As one of the innovators of the modern format of the sport, he has been associated with the league from the outset while serving as its technical director.

"When PKL was introduced, we were thinking about how to make the sport more spectator- and broadcast-friendly," he explained.

"We started looking for innovations to make. For almost two years we experimented with different formats and rules which eventually took us to the innovations we were looking at."

Killing inaction with the Do-or-die raid

After brainstorming and experimenting, the idea of a Do-or-die raid emerged to induce action in the sport.

Earlier in Kabaddi, a raider would set out and conduct empty raids, and with defenders unwilling to take the risk of nabbing a raider, certain phases of the game became utterly boring for the watching audience.

"We decided to reduce the number of empty raids. At first, we thought that every second raid would be a do-or-die raid but then we realized that it can lead to more injuries," said Kabaddi Rao.

"We conducted small local tournaments and the clubs played with our rules. The tournaments gave us clarity and we decided to call the third raid after two empty raids a do-or-die raid," he added further.

The addition of a do-or-die raid not only made the sport interesting and kept the audience on the edge of their seats, but it also gave teams an extra layer of strategy to play with.

Do-or-die specialists became a title for raiders who would emerge in the third raid and multiple teams used a specialist in these moments making the game tactically more interesting.

Breaking the monotony

Another innovation that emerged was the 30-second timer set for the raids by the Pro Kabaddi League.

Kabaddi is a sport where raiders hold their breath and mutter 'Kabaddi, Kabaddi' while raiding and if one breaks the breath, the player is considered 'out'.

And owing to this rule of holding one's breath, several raids would be conducted without any substantial action.

"The duration being undefined meant that a lot of times raiders will stand on the mid-line and mutter 'Kabaddi, Kabaddi' for minutes," laughed Kabaddi Rao.

This needed to change and thus emerged the emphasis on time.

"We wanted to get done with and came up with the rule of 30 seconds for one raid. If the raider fails to finish it in under the stipulated time, they will be considered out. The rule helped us in making the sport more smooth and interesting," he explained.

Risk and reward for defenders with Super Tackle

Player roles in Kabaddi are similar to the sport of cricket with raiders acting as batters, defenders acting as bowlers, and all-rounders being multi-skilled players.

Similar to cricket where batters can score 100s of runs and the bowler gets one wicket for all their efforts, raiders can score as many points while defenders will get just one point for even the most spectacular tackle.

"Raiders were already scoring more points. They can score all seven points and take nine points overall, but no matter how good the tackle is, the defender will get only one point," explained Rao.

This contributed to the next vital innovation, the Super Tackle.

"That's when the idea of Super Tackle occurred to us. We thought of many things like awarding three points for solo tackle but eventually at the current format of Super Tackle where defenders get two points for stopping a raider if there are three or fewer players on the mat," he added.

Evolution for sustained relevance

Apart from major innovations like these, the league has been constantly evolving with rule changes every time a controversial situation emerges.

The league changed the controversial lobby rule in Season 9 to remove the rule that eliminated both the raider and the defender who followed the raider into the lobby.

This happened after an incident when the entire Bengaluru Bulls squad of seven followed Bengal Warriors' Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh into the lobby and Bengal got eight points in one go.

Talking about the need for evolution, Rao said," It is important to grow if you want to be relevant and with the league reaching more and more people, we need to make the game accessible for everyone."

By blending tradition with new-age appeal, Kabaddi has grown from a rural game into a national phenomenon.

That said, only time will tell if these innovations are good enough to sustain the interest that currently exists. But with visionaries like Kabbadi Rao, ready and willing to experiment, the game is in good hands for the time being.