Pro Kabaddi League: A televised spectacle capturing the heart of India
For the uninitiated, kabaddi, the ancient Indian game that is taking the world’s second-most populous country by storm, looks far too simple to be a professional sport. A hybrid of rugby, touch football and the playground game known in England as British Bulldog and in the United States as Red Rover (“Red rover, red rover, let Tommy come over...”), kabaddi (pronounced kuh-bud-DEE) uses no balls, pucks, nets, goal posts, hoops, holes, rackets, clubs, sticks or bats. It is so unknown in the West that on August 8, 2017, ESPNU, the American digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., showcased what it termed “the finest in seldom seen sports,” including the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup Final. An exhibition match was played at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, but it did not catch on internationally. ALSO READ: How the Pro Kabaddi League 2018 is still an all-conquering juggernaut Now, with the establishment in 2014 of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) and tel