Kho Kho World Cup: Has the Indian sport reached the global stage?

They, however, held back until the clock hit zero. Once it did the team led by Priyanka Ingle let their emotions out. They were the inaugural Kho Kho World Champions.

Just over an hour later, the Indian men’s team replicated the feat. The celebrations, this time, were a bit more exaggerated as Pratik Waikar and co rushed to the mat to celebrate in the face of their opponents from Nepal. Mehul, the player of the final, was jumping around with the Indian flag.

The post-win celebrations were contrasting. But the sentiments were common.

Both Ingle and Waikar were bullish about the sport's future prospects. They spoke about the run-and-tag sport potentially becoming an Olympic event in the near future, especially with India bidding to host the 2036 Games just over a decade later.

The two captains were not the only ones. The Kho Kho Federation of India and the International Kho Kho Federation – both led by Bhartiya Janta Party member Sudhanshu Mittal – reiterated the same multiple times during the course of the week-long World Cup.

Kho Kho is inherently an Indian sport. In recent times, it has ditched traditions to modernise itself. The idea of a seven-man sport with concepts like Wazirs and Dream Runs has made the sport faster.

The Ultimate Kho Kho League, which first brought about this modernisation, is also currently the third most watched non-cricketing sports league in India, behind the Pro Kabaddi League and the Indian Super League – both of which started more than a decade back.

The rise of Kho Kho has been rapid. The international federation for the sport had only six member nations in 2020. The number has risen to 55 in just five years. That’s an eight-fold increase in half-a-decade.

Even the first-ever World Cup in Delhi had 23 nations from six continents competing. The best part? The teams were not just filled with the South Asian diaspora; a majority of the teams competing had players native to their countries.

As per the Olympic Charter, for a sport to be added to the Olympic Games it needs to be played by men in at least 75 countries on four continents and by women in a minimum of 40 countries in three continents.

With the current rate of expansion, it looks only a matter of time before Kho Kho hits the required number.

If Kho Kho does indeed make it to the 2036 Olympics roster, it would be a full circle moment for the sport which was played as a demonstration event at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

The sport also has immense political backing. Mittal himself is a part of India’s ruling BJP and even the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is deeply invested in expanding it as evident by the presence of the organisation’s joint secretary Krishna Gopal during the World Cup Final.

However, the world is only still warming up to Kho Kho. Though the sport has its presence in 55 countries, the level of gameplay is still far from polished. Even the World Cup was largely lopsided.

While the Indian women’s team cruised through to win the title, scoring 100 points in four successive matches, the men’s team too were rarely challenged.

The only contest which posed questions to the eventual champions was the inaugural match between the hosts and Nepal men – unarguably the second best team in the world.

But even that could well be attributed to early jitters. For when the two teams met again in the men’s final to close off the week-long World Cup, India were head and shoulders above their opponents.

The mati ka khel has arrived at the global stage but it still has some way to go to make a splash.