2023 is already being an exciting year for Kabaddi, as the second most popular sport in India - after cricket – with the established PKL (Pro Kabaddi League) a mega event in its native country. Far more a major sport there than the worldwide popular sport football, even if it doesn’t have enough fan-following elsewhere in the world, it has quite some popularity in India.

Now, according to estimates, Kabaddi has a total of 435 million viewers, after the World Kabaddi Day was initiated in 2020, by World Kabaddi, as part of its strategic plan to promote the sports globally. This year ‘Play Hard! Play Smart! Play Together!’ was chosen as the theme for this year’s World Kabaddi Day.

World Kabaddi was formed in 2018 and now has a membership of more than 50 countries around the world, with World Kabaddi president Mr Ashok Kumar Das hoping that the World Kabaddi Day celebrations would raise more awareness to the ancient sport of kabaddi.

“Kabaddi is now played in all five continents and is undergoing tremendous growth, said Ashok, who is also the President of Kabaddi Europe.

“The objective is to make it a celebration of kabaddi around the world,” he said. “The celebrations is not just for the day as we also want kabaddi activities to be held throughout the month of March.”

He said that World Kabaddi wanted to encourage all members as well kabaddi enthusiasts around the world to conduct at least one kabaddi activity to celebrate World Kabaddi Day.