KABADDI

KABADDI

KABADDI

APRIL 2019
 A DETAILED REPORT ON

INCREASING POPULARITY OF KABADDI IN INDIA

PREPARED FOR

Dr. NILAK DATTA

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

PREPARED BY

GROUP - F

GANDHI UJWAL ABHAYKUMAR 2018A4PS0572G

SAWANE MOHIT MANISH 2018A4PS0632G
MALOO TUSHAR GOPAL 2018A4PS0848G
PRANJAL ANAND 2018A4PS0874G
NISHANT YADAV 2018A4PS0895G
RICHA CHETAN NAIK 2018AAPS0267G
A REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS OF BITS F112: TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Nilak Datta for his invaluable suggestions,
counsel and encouragement. His assistance has been extremely helpful to us during the writing
of our report. We are also grateful for his recommendations and instructions regarding the
survey techniques, analysis of the survey and other problems faced by us during the
development of this report.

We would also like to thank the students of BITS Pilani, Goa Campus for their precious time
and effort to participate in our survey. Their responses have been crucial for the report and
without which the report would have been incomplete.

i
 ABSTRACT

Kabaddi is a contact sport indigenous to India. Until five years ago, its recognition on the global
level was very limited, as it had never grown as a professional sport. The success of the Indian
Premier League(cricket), however, spurred several domestic sports leagues, one of them being
the Pro Kabaddi League, which started in 2014. Following the caravan format of the IPL, along
with its sponsorship and marketing strategies, the league has had tremendous growth over the
past five years. It's no use trying to spread a sport globally if it cannot become popular in its
own country. This report analyses how the Pro Kabaddi League played a vital role in increasing
the popularity of the sport in India, and the contribution of the media in doing so. The question
regarding the future of the professional sport, is also looked into. Kabaddi reflects a
fundamental part of India; it is a recreational activity requiring minimal equipment, and at the
same time offers great entertainment value, and a great physical exercise, as is clearly implied
by the nature of the game.

ii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

List of Illustrations iii

1. Introduction to Report 1-2

2. Introduction to Topic 3-4
3. Reasons for Kabaddi becoming popular 5-12
3.1. Role of Pro Kabaddi League 5
3.2. Rise in awareness of Kabaddi internationally 7-8
3.2.1. World Cup 7
3.2.2. Asian Games 8
3.3. Upper Hand over other Sports 8-10
3.3.1. Economic feasibility 9
3.3.2. Short Duration 9-10
3.4. Increased Media Outreach 10-12
3.4.1. Widespread Broadcasting 10-12
3.4.2. Sponsorship and Marketing 12
3.4.3. Celebrity Endorsements 12
4. Rise of Women’s Kabaddi 13
5. Kabaddi as a recreational activity 14
6. Scope of Kabaddi as a professional sport 15
7. Conclusion 16
8. Recommendations 17
9. Bibliography 18
10. List of References 19-20
11. Appendix 21-23
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1 – Google Web Search trend of “Kabaddi”. X-axis represents time and Y-axis
represents search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time.

Figure 2 – Which of these Kabaddi tournaments did you hear about first?

Figure 3 – Are you aware of Pro Kabaddi League in India?

Figure 4 - Google Web Search trend of “Kabaddi” and “Pro Kabaddi League”. X-axis
represents time and Y-axis represents search interest relative to the highest point on the chart
for the given region and time.

Figure 5 – Do you know players from the Indian National Kabaddi Team?

Figure 6 – Do you know players from any other country?

Figure 7 – Kabaddi, Cricket, Football and Badminton being ranked by the respondents. X-axis
represents the sports and Y-axis represents no. of respondents.

Figure 8 – How often do you see kabaddi ads (Pro Kabaddi or World Cups)? X-axis, 1 being
very rare and 5 being very often and Y-axis represents no. of respondents.

Figure 9 – On which of these platforms have you noticed the greatest frequency of such ads?
X-axis represents no. of respondents and Y-axis represents the platforms across which the
respondents noticed the ads.

Figure 10 - Entertainment value and simplicity of kabaddi, on a scale of 1-5. X-axis represents
criteria and Y-axis represents no. of responses.

Figure 11 - Ranking prevailing sports in India.

Figure 12 – Do you feel that there is still scope for professional kabaddi to grow?

iii
 1. INTRODUCTION TO REPORT

Kabaddi, often assumed to be a traditional Indian sport, was hardly considered to be a sport of
international calibre till the introduction of the World Kabaddi League and Pro Kabaddi League
(in India), both in 2014. The main objective of this report is to analyse and understand the
reasons for the increasing popularity of kabaddi since 2014. The report also attempts to analyse
whether the pro Kabaddi League is solely responsible for growth in popularity of the sport.

Data presented in this report is from a variety of sources: (1) online news articles (which have
detailed, credible accounts of reviews about the sport), (2) an online questionnaire (refer
appendix 1- Questionnaire) circulated among the on-campus students in BITS Goa to gauge
their exposure to Kabaddi, and (3) Google Trends data, which gives data about the frequency
of web searches related to a particular topic (here, kabaddi and PKL). The sample space of
reviews and information from online news websites is large, and covers professional kabaddi
players and sponsors, which gives perspectives of an audience already exposed to kabaddi and
evaluates their opinions on it. The online questionnaire, however, has a small sample space.
130 responses were received- purely consisting of on-campus students of BITS Pilani, K. K.
Birla Goa Campus. The questionnaire aims to understand the amount of and type of exposure
of these students to the sport, and the weightage of the Pro Kabaddi League in their awareness
of the sport. Google Trends data has only been used in a few places to analyse web search
trends, as additional proof of conclusions drawn.

1
 Figure 3 – Google Web Search trend of “Kabaddi”. X-axis represents time and Y-axis represents search
interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time.

The graph above, drawn from Google tends, clearly shows the rise in web searches of kabaddi
(using Google as the web browser)- which the report aims to justify and analyse.

To analyse the growth of kabaddi over the last 5 years, this report explains the reasons for
kabaddi becoming popular in India- the role of Pro Kabaddi (as an Indian tournament) and
international presence of kabaddi, such as in Asian games. Kabaddi has been compared to other
sports prevalent in India (by comparing their respective domestic leagues- such as ISL
(football) VS PKL(Kabaddi)).

Further, the celebrity endorsements and social media outreach of the Pro Kabaddi League has
been evaluated as a factor leading to popularity of kabaddi as a whole in India. Additionally,
the status of women’s kabaddi has been briefly looked into. Finally, this report talks about the
scope of kabaddi as a professional sport and recommends ways in which the outreach of the
sport can be increased.

The analysis of the Pro Kabaddi League in this report, does not involve comparisons with other
internationally established leagues like WWE, EPL, IPL, etc as they have a pre-existing viewer
base and are therefore would make for an unfair comparison. As stated in the topic itself, the
analysis of increase in popularity is limited to India only. All the graphs show the results from
the survey conducted, unless stated otherwise.

2
 2. INTRODUCTION TO TOPIC

Kabaddi is a contact team sport indigenous to India and played mostly in South Asian countries.
Played between two teams of seven players, the objective is for a single player (the “raider”) to
run into the opponent’s half of the court, tag as many of the players, and return to their own
half. The intensity of the game is increased by the rule that the raider must complete the
objective in one breath, and to ensure that, they are required to chant “kabaddi, kabaddi” until
they return to their half. If the raider is tackled by the opponents (the “defenders” for the play)
before that, no points are scored, and the raider is declared out (depending on game format).
There may be a few additional rules in different formats to make the game more scoring.
Kabaddi requires little amount of equipment, and no exclusively designed play area or clothing.

The World Kabaddi Federation, formed in 2004, is the international governing body of kabaddi
and is currently affiliated with 48 national federations. while the Amateur Kabaddi Federation
of India is the national governing body of India. According to the WKF, the International
Olympic Committee has assured the recognition of the sport upon having a minimum of 50
affiliated national federations.

Several factors determine the relevance of a sport. Initially, just before and independence, India
was a world leader in field hockey at the Olympics, and still has the greatest number of golds
at the event. Hockey was so popular that it was (and still is) often misunderstood to be the
‘national sport’, even though there is no official record of such a national symbol. However,
for the past 35 years, India has failed to make a mark in any international hockey event. In
1983, India’s unprecedented victory at the cricket World Cup paved the way for currently the
most popular sport in the country. The fact that cricket was introduced by colonials has had no
impact on its popularity. Thus, in the case of India, the success of the country in international
sporting events largely boosts its popularity.

3
Kabaddi’s first recorded international recognition was during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where
a demonstration match was played, but is still not officially recognised by the IOC. It was only
in the 1990 Asian Games that it was recognised as an event. India has won in all three Kabaddi
World Cups, but there have been only three editions (2004, 2006, 2016). Kabaddi is thus a very
young sport in terms of international recognition, and despite being indigenous to India, it is
still in its early stages as a professional sport in the country.

Due to the rise of domestic leagues, which will be explored in the report, sports like football
have also started becoming popular. India is not a major contender on the international stage,
but the success of the Indian Super League has contributed to its relevance. Thus, it does not
depend on the characteristics of the sport itself, but well planned and organised tournaments,
along with large sponsorships go a long way in determining a sport’s popularity.

In the modern scenario, the relevance of a sport can be gauged by looking at two main aspects:
Its popularity as a recreational activity and as a professional sport. In many cases, the latter can
influence the former. The accessibility of the masses to the sport, media outreach and
sponsorship are the main contributing factors to its success as a professional sport.

4
 3. REASONS FOR KABADDI
BECOMING POPULAR
Data in this section of the report has been collected using various techniques, each of which
reveals the following aspects about the growth of kabaddi in India -
 A survey circulated among the students of BITS Goa-
This demonstrates the popularity of Kabaddi among the on-campus, undergraduate
student crowd in BITS Goa, who presumably had access to conventional media sources
such as televisions in the given period of analysis (2014-onwards).
 Google trends-
The Google Trends data is an unbiased sample of Google search data- restricted to that
of India and mainly for the years 2014-2019, for the purpose of this report. It has been
presented to quantify the interest of the nation’s crowd, given the immense importance
and prevalence of the internet as a medium for transfer of news and data.
X-Axis gives time and numbers on Y-Axis represent search interest relative to the
highest point on the chart for the given region and time.
 News articles (online)-
These give specific reviews and inputs regarding Kabaddi, at the various different
stages of its development as a professional sport.

3.1. ROLE OF PRO KABADDI LEAGUE

The most prevalent kabaddi
tournament nationally- the
Pro Kabaddi League, and
the international
penetration of the sport (as
an Asian Games Event and
the Kabaddi World Cup)
have been attributed to be
major factors in promoting Figure 4 – Which of these Kabaddi tournaments did you hear about first?

the sport among the Indian audience. These have been analysed using data obtained via the
methods stated above.

5
Introduction of the Pro Kabaddi League in 2014 has brought professional Kabaddi to
mainstream media platforms (TV). This has increased the viewership base and brought the
sport into the cultural mainstream. The first auction for the Pro Kabaddi League was in May
2014, and inaugural match was on August 31st, 2014.

Data from the survey

circulated among BITS Goa
students brought into
perspective that within the
student crowd on this
campus, 99.2% (or 127) of Figure 3 – Are you
aware of Pro
the 128 respondents were Kabaddi League in
India?
aware about the presence of
the Pro Kabaddi League.

Google trends data reveals that while Kabaddi did not feature in the average Indian internet
user’s browser searches ten years ago, but with the introduction of PKL, interest in kabaddi has
been peaking with every season. (As is evident from this graph, July-October period is the
period of each season of PKL in each year).

Figure 4 - Google Web Search trend of “Kabaddi” and “Pro Kabaddi League”. X-axis represents time and Y-
axis represents search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time.

6
According to KPMG’s report “The Business of Sports”, in the 2015 edition, the viewership
propelled to a 20% rise as compared to the first edition and the 2016 edition had a rise of
35% as compared to the previous edition. Also, the PKL won exceptional ratings and
revenues leaving behind ISL by a country mile. Those were clear signs that a new
powerhouse had arrived.

3.2. RISE IN AWARENESS OF KABADDI

INTERNATIONALLY
3.2.1. WORLD CUP:

All world cups held till now for both men's and women's kabaddi are won by India.
The first women’s Kabaddi WC was held in 2016 which was won by India by defeating New
Zealand. In the year of 2018 a new tournament was introduced which was subset of WC held
in Dubai named as Kabaddi Masters in which teams with top 6 rankings in the world played.
In the edition of 2016 WC two non-Asian teams Argentina and Kenya also joined the WC
which is quite remarkable. The Kabaddi WC 2019 is going to be held in Melaka, Malaysia.

The rising interest among the people can also be seen by the following stats.

Figure 5 – Do you know players from the Indian Figure 6 – Do you know players from any other
National Kabaddi Team? country?

3.2.2. ASIAN GAMES:

7
In the 1990 Asian Games there were 6 nations, namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China,
Japan and Nepal, competing in the Kabaddi event. In 18 th Asian Games held in year of 2018
there were 11 teams, the newcomers being South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and
Malaysia.

India dominated the kabaddi event at the Asian Games, winning ever since the sport’s inclusion
in 1990, but was beaten by Iran recently in the 2018 Games held in Jakarta, in both men’s and
women’s category.

In view of the 15th Asian Games, Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) said that

“A good many spectators belonging to European countries, USA, Australia, Western

Asia, and the Mediterranean countries, who saw the Game for the first time, were very
impressed with the simple rules and the thrill of the sport and desired to introduce the sport
in their countries. This has given Kabaddi very good and positive exposure for its future
development in the continents of Europe, USA, Australia and Africa.”

3.3. UPPER HAND OVER OTHER SPORTS

In the survey circulated among BITS Goa Students, respondents were asked to assign a rank to
each of the four sports: football, cricket, kabaddi and badminton. The results did reveal that the
respondents believe football and cricket to hold the most importance, but these two sports have
held a major fan base for decades before professional kabaddi even came into being. A large
percentage of the students (35 out of 128 respondents) however, did place kabaddi at the second
place, which is extremely significant considering its relevance has only been noticed over the
last five years. These responses, however, were mostly based on entertainment value and
personal preferences. There are more obvious technical and management advantages of
kabaddi over other sports too, as presented below:

8
 Figure 7 – Kabaddi, Cricket, Football and Badminton being ranked by the respondents. X-axis represents the
sports and Y-axis represents no. of respondents.

3.3.1. ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY:

Kabaddi as compared to other sports has less monetary limitations. Holding kabaddi
tournaments is much more economically feasible. The sport can be played professionally at
many indoor stadiums, as it only requires open space for the kabaddi mats to laid, whereas for
sports like cricket, football, etc a well-maintain ground is required.

Running costs, including salaries and travel, are estimated at USD 800,000 per club in PKL.
By comparison, in the 2014 Indian Premier League, Delhi Daredevils paid some USD 1.4m
just for the services of Kevin Pietersen - while an IPL franchise costs about USD10m. Thus, it
is also feasible for small scale investors or owners to invest in or own a franchise (Atkinson).

At an individual level also, kabaddi doesn’t require a large investment. A professional kabaddi
player just requires a jersey and a pair of non-marking shoes. When compared to cricket, the
cricket kit costs starting from 15,000 to lakhs of rupees, depending on the skill set of the players
and in football the kit starts from around INR 10,000.

3.3.2. SHORT DURATION:

The shortest format of a cricket match takes at least 3-4 hours to finish. Within this time, 5-6
kabaddi matches could be played. A kabaddi match takes just 40 minutes to conclude and keeps
its viewers on the edge of their seats throughout those 40 minutes.

9
A Test match lasts for 5 days, while a one-day international can take up to 10 hours. In this
fast-paced world, where time is considered more valuable, a kabaddi match, which has action,
speed and strength packed in less than an hour, provides all the entertainment minus the
investment of a lot of time, which cricket requires.

Quick, 40-minute-long matches played close to or during prime-time television slots, and the
short, month-long length of previous seasons have kept PKL's intensity and interest around it
intact.

3.4. INCREASED MEDIA OUTREACH

The growth in popularity and fame can be primarily linked to the Pro Kabaddi League, hence
media outreach of PKL has been presented as a general measure of media outreach of the sport.

3.4.1. WIDESPREAD BROADCASTING OF PRO KABADDI

LEAGUE:

Pro Kabaddi League started off as an initiative by Mashal sports Pvt. Ltd in 2014. It received
backing from STAR Sports Pvt. Ltd., which became the League’s official broadcasting partner.
In 2015 (second season of PKL), STAR sports announced that it would acquire a 74% stake in
Mashal Sports(“STAR India”). Since STAR sports is an Indian media giant, this lead to PKL
taking off with a great scope for viewership.

According to The Hindu, article titled “Pro Kabaddi League viewership second only to IPL”,
dated September 15, 2014, “Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League 2014 attracted 435 million
viewers over the 37-day event, second to the Indian Premier League’s 552 million. According
to TAM panel, the first season final between Jaipur Pink Panthers and U-Mumba was viewed
by 86.4 million- approximately one out of every four viewers in India.”
As mentioned earlier in section 3.1., PKL’s TV viewership increased by 20% y-o-y (year-over-
year) in its second season (2015) and 35% in its third season.

10
PKL gained 2.3 billion impressions on social media (which is the number of times content
related to PKL was displayed, irrespective of whether or not it was clicked on) and PKL’s
Twitter witnessed more than 25,000 tweets daily for the semi-final and final, as stated by The
Hindu in the same article.

Figure 8 – How often do you see kabaddi ads (Pro Kabaddi or World Cups)? X-axis, 1 being very rare and 5
being very often and Y-axis represents no. of respondents.

According to the survey circulated among students of BITS Goa, the responses to the question
“How often have you seen Pro Kabaddi ads?” (with 1 being never and 5 being very often, with
respect to the total number of ads seen) indicate that a majority of students believe they see
PKL ads quite often, which further confirms the large reach and impressions of PKL in the
media.

Figure 9 – On which of these platforms have you noticed the greatest frequency of such ads? X-axis represents
no. of respondents and Y-axis represents the platforms across which the respondents noticed the ads.

11
In the same survey, the question “On which of these platforms have you noticed the greatest
frequency of such ads?” gathered the following responses, indicating that the reach of PKL ads
is greatest via TV, as per the BITS Goa student crowd.

3.4.2. SPONSORSHIP AND MARKETING:

The first season of the Pro Kabaddi League had 8 participating teams and it stayed that way till
season 5, where the number of participating teams was increased to 12. The league kept
growing larger, with more sponsorship money and huge amounts of money being invested in
auction of the Pro Kabaddi players, which clearly indicated the growing interest in the sport.
In fact, the auction in season 5 involved more than 400 players and a total of Rs 46.99 crores
spent by the 12 teams involved.

In 2015, before the launch of season 5 of PKL, Vivo signed a 5-year deal (valued around Rs
300 crores) with PKL, which increased the sponsorship income of PKL by around 320%. This
deal also placed PKL as the second-largest domestic league after IPL (cricket), in terms of
sponsorship money.

PKL season 4 had a consolidated prize money of 4 crore rupees which was doubled to 8 crores
for season 5. In season 5 of PKL, 12 teams participated, with the winners competing for a prize
money of Rs 3 crore. The prize money for runners-up was Rs 1.8 crore, and for third position
was 1.2 crore. MVP prize reward was set to be Rs 15 lakh in that season ("Pro Kabaddi"
OUTLOOK INDIA). Huge prize money involved in the sport also heavily contributed to
bringing passion in both the players and the audience.

3.4.3. CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS:

Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh
Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan have been frequently seen attending and
involving in management of Pro Kabaddi League, which inevitably created curiosity among
the Indian masses about the League. Since Abhishek Bachchan bought the Kabaddi team
‘Jaipur Pink Panthers’ in 2017, and Akshay Kumar bought ‘Bengal Warriors’ soon after, the
popularity of the sport among celebrities and hence their fanbase, has been on the rise.

12
 4. RISE OF WOMEN’S KABADDI

The first international Women's Kabaddi match, the world saw was at the Asian Games 2010
edition. There were competitors from ten nations. According to Neelam Sahu, the women's
kabaddi coach at Palam Sports Club, Dwarka, “there is no dearth of talented women players -
all they need is a licensed platform from where they can take over sexism with their show.”

Later, the Kabaddi World Cup also introduced women teams in the tournament. The maiden
edition of the women’s Kabaddi World Cup took place in 2016, the same year in which the
Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), with the help of Star India, launched the
Women's Kabaddi Challenge (WKC), which provided limelight for top women kabaddi
players.

The first two matches of WKC alone had combined clocked a viewership of 38 million,
according to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), which was the highest
viewership than any other women's sport in India. This was also greater than the viewership of
UEFA EURO CUP (football).

However, after the WKC, there has been no update regarding a women’s equivalent of the Pro
Kabaddi League.

13
 5. KABADDI AS A RECREATIONAL
ACTIVITY
In most cases, the entertainment value that people receive from playing a sport is what
contributes to its relevance. Of course, the sport should be accessible with regards to play area
and equipment, and rules should be simple. Kabaddi satisfies these criteria easily, as was
mentioned before.

Information gathered from

the questionnaire
circulated among the
students of BITS Goa has
been presented in Fig. 10
As is evident from Fig. 10, Figure 10 - Entertainment value and simplicity of kabaddi, on a scale of 1-5.
X-axis represents criteria and Y-axis represents no. of responses.
the students surveyed
believed that kabaddi was entertaining and quite simple to understand. To understand how
kabaddi was faring in India, it is necessary to see where it stood among other sports. The
respondents were also asked to rank the sport kabaddi against cricket, football, and badminton,
three extremely popular sports in the country, each of which has a nationwide domestic league.
The results were as follows:

Figure 11 - Ranking prevailing sports in India

42 out of the 128 respondents preferred cricket and 40 of them chose football as the best sport
among the four. Kabaddi was ranked 3rd by 39 people, and 2nd by 35. The corresponding
figures for badminton are both at 37.
14
 6. SCOPE OF KABADDI AS A
PROFESSIONAL SPORT

According to our survey, 117 out of the 128 respondents felt that there was still scope for the
growth of professional kabaddi.

Figure 12 – Do you feel that there is still scope for professional kabaddi to grow?

The respondents who answered ‘no’ gave the reason that the reach of kabaddi was
geographically limited. Those who stated ‘yes’ mostly stated its popularity boost due to pro
kabaddi and its effective marketing.
Kabaddi has also begun its growth in an era of ever- advancing sports technology such as video
refereeing. The audience response of the 2019 World Cup in Melaka, Malaysia will largely
determine the future of the sport on the international stage.

15
 7. CONCLUSION

1. Popularity of kabaddi has certainly increased exponentially over the past few years. It has
always been a popular recreational activity, but now more people are aware of it as an
internationally recognised professional sport.
2. The Pro Kabaddi League has played a key role in increasing the popularity of kabaddi in
India. It has also attracted many foreign players, which has the potential to garner
worldwide attention.
3. Effective marketing strategies and media usage leading to the commercial success of the
Pro Kabaddi League has led to increasing awareness of kabaddi as a professional sport.
Advertisements on television is the most successful medium so far.
4. The international reach of kabaddi is still geographically limited. This is a reason why it
is still not an Olympic sport. The international tournaments have also been few (only three
world cups so far, all held in India), and have not been marketed and broadcasted
adequately.
5. Due to minimal equipment requirement, the sport is accessible to people of low economic
status. Due to kabaddi’s increasing popularity, it can now be considered a viable career
choice, and thus can contribute to increasing incomes.
6. From the awareness and views gathered from students via the survey, most feel that
kabaddi can still grow as a professional sport on the international arena.

16
 8. RECOMMENDATIONS

1. To ensure that a sport continues to grow, it must have a growing number of players. For
this, it is necessary that schools introduce kabaddi as a sport at par with currently
prevailing sports like football and basketball.
2. Educational institutes should form kabaddi teams and start building standard kabaddi
courts, which can even be built as a part of existing gymnasiums.
3. School and college level kabaddi tournaments should be organized with appropriate
funding to ensure that more people start considering it as a professional sport
4. Sponsors and celebrity team owners should increase the usage of social media to
promote the domestic Pro Kabaddi League, as it is a much better way to reach young
audiences.
5. Professional kabaddi players should be provided with ample financial assistance by the
government, in order to make it a viable career option.

17
 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Websites:

 https://www.barcindia.co.in
 https://www.sportskeeda.com
 http://www.indiankabaddi.org
 https://docs.google.com
 https://sports.ndtv.com
 https://www.financialexpress.com
 https://www.bbc.com
 http://www.espn.in
 https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com
 https://www.thehindu.com
 https://indianexpress.com
 https://www.edelweiss.in/
 https://www.startv.com
 https://www.deccanherald.com
 https://www.indiatoday.in
 https://m-economictimes-com
 https://worldkabaddi.org

18
 10. LIST OF REFERENCES

"5 reasons why kabaddi can rival cricket for popularity in India." SPORTSKEEDA,
www.sportskeeda.com/slideshow/5-reasons-why-kabaddi-can-rival-cricket-for-popularity-
in-india. Accessed 15 April 2019.
Atkinson, Simon. "Kabaddi gets the IPL treatment." BBC NEWS, 7 August 2014,
www.bbc.com/news/business-28660432. Accessed 15 April 2019.
Bhagavatula, Manoj. "The improbable success of the Pro Kabaddi League." SONY ESPN, 28
July 2017, www.espn.in/kabaddi/story/_/id/20170469/the-improbable-success-pro-
kabaddi-league . Accessed 15 April 2019.
Laghate, Gaurav. "Only two women’s Kabaddi matches get more viewers than Euro 2016."
ECONOMIC TIMES, 11 July 2016, www.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/sports/only-
two-womens-kabaddi-matches-get-more-viewers-than-euro-
2016/articleshow/53145284.cms. Accessed 14 April 2019.
MV, Vivek. "A move to boost women's kabaddi in India." DECCAN HERALD, 23 July 2016,
www.deccanherald.com/content/559589/a-move-boost-womens-kabaddi.html. Accessed
14 April 2019.
Negi, Lipla. "Kabaddi: Struggle begins at home for girls." INDIA TODAY, 19 July 2015,
www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/kabaddi-women-kabaddi-players-pinky-ambawatta-
pkl-palam-sports-club-283211-2015-07-19. Accessed 16 April 2019.
"Pro Kabaddi league viewership second only to IPL." THE HINDU, 15 Sept. 2014,
www.thehindu.com/sport/other-sports/pro-kabaddi-league-viewership-second-only-to-
ipl/article6413148.ece. Accessed 15 April 2019.
"Pro Kabaddi hikes prize money." OUTLOOK INDIA, 15 July 2017,
www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/pro-kabaddi-hikes-prize-money/1099662. Accessed 17
April 2019.
"Star India Buys 74% Stake in Pro Kabaddi Owner Mashal Sports." Sports Business Daily, 28
April 2015, www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Global/Issues/2015/04/28/Media/Star-India-
Mashal.aspx. Accessed 15 April 2019.
"Sonakshi Sinha co-owns team in World Kabaddi League." INDIAN EXPRESS, 16 July 2014,
www.indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/sonakshi-sinha-co-owns-team-
in-world-kabaddi-league. Accessed 17 April 2019.

19
 11. APPENDIX
Questionnaire:

1. When was the last time you played kabaddi?

a) Never
b) More than 5 years ago
c) Less than 5 years ago
d) Still play occasionally
e) Still play, very often

2. Previously (about 6 years ago), did you know kabaddi as an internationally recognised
sport?
a) Yes
b) No

3. On a scale of 1-5, rate kabaddi as per given criteria

1 2 3 4 5

Entertainment

Simplicity

4. Are you aware of Pro Kabaddi League in India?

a) Yes
b) No

5. Do you know players from the Indian National Team?

a) Yes
b) No

6. Do you know players from any other country?

a) Yes

20
 b) No

7. Which of these kabaddi tournaments did you hear about first?

a) World Cup
b) Asian Games
c) Pro Kabaddi League
d) Not heard of any of these

8. How often have you seen Pro Kabaddi ads (local league or world cup)?

1(Rarely/Never) 2 3 4 5(Very often)

9. On which of these platforms have you noticed the frequency of such ads?
a) Video sharing/Streaming services (YouTube, Netflix, Hotstar, etc.)
b) Social network
c) Newspapers
d) TV
e) Never seen
f) Others

10. If ‘others’, please mention:

_______________________________________________________________

11. Give your overall ranking of following sports

1 2 3 4

Kabaddi

Cricket

Football

Badminton

21
12. Do you feel there is still scope for professional kabaddi to grow?
a) Yes
b) No

13. Why/Why not?

________________________________________________________________

22