The first-ever Kabaddi World Cup hosted outside of Asia saw England take silver. Here’s how their amateur teams went toe to toe with some of the best players in the world.

History was made last Sunday as the Kabaddi World Cup drew to a close. It was India once again holding the trophy aloft in a sold-out arena in Wolverhampton, but as the final whistle blew, the England players greeted each other with smiles, high fives, and hugs before turning to an upbeat home crowd who showed their support with cheers and applause. The men’s team may have suffered the same unlucky fate in the final as the women’s side had just hours earlier, but it was a triumphant loss for both England teams, who now had one eye on their day jobs in the morning.

Kabaddi is a sport widely played in India and Pakistan. It’s the national sport of Bangladesh and features as part of the Asia Games. As a niche and largely unknown sport in the UK and across Europe, the English team knew they had to shine to create headlines and shine they did. Both the women’s and men’s teams made their names in the World Cup, and they’re hoping that a new generation has been inspired to take up the sport of Kabaddi.  

Although both England teams were underdogs going into the weeklong tournament, they had high expectations and goals for themselves. England weren’t just here to go through the motions and admire the professionals that they would be competing against. They were here to win.

“The aim was to win the whole tournament. We go into every match to win it. That was the plan.” England men’s player Sagar Doddaiah claims. “We knew this was required to put England on the map of Kabaddi. We were only around the top 10 before. We needed to tell the world that we’re a proper force.”

It wasn’t just the men’s team hoping to pull off a miracle. The women’s side had only been put together in January and had been training together for less than six months, but their vice-captain, Sally Hill, says that their “ultimate objective was to reach the semi-final”.

Sagar and Sally’s high ambitions were to be met. After the women’s team pulled off a shock victory in the quarters against Hong Kong and then won their following game, the men were triumphant over Scotland in their semi-final, meaning both England teams would be competing against the fully professional India teams in the finals. Few could have hoped, never mind believed, that England would have been in this position at the beginning of the tournament, but here they were in front of a sold-out arena belting out Sweet Caroline in true English fashion with those who came to support.

The men’s captain Harry Singh says “The highlight of the tournament was beating Scotland to reach the final. Singing Sweet Caroline with all our fans ready to play the final on the biggest stage. It was amazing. Any competition with the home crowd is extremely special, especially a World Cup. You get that special feeling like you’ve got an extra player on the pitch. Playing in the UK and performing for England has been amazing, and hopefully we did our country proud.”

The sport consists of two teams of seven competing indoors on a mat for two 20-minute halves. The objective of each game is for players to take turns running into the opposing team’s half and tag as many of them as possible without being tackled. That person is known as a ‘raider,’ and they must do so in one single breath while continuously chanting ‘Kabaddi, Kabaddi’ until they get back into their own half or get tackled.

With the England teams defying all expectations, media attention grew ahead of the final. With MPs and councillors expected to be in attendance, as well as ITV News, BBC, and Talk Sport covering the semi-final highlights and building up the final, suddenly thousands were interested, with BBC iPlayer reaching almost half a million viewers.

Kawal Das, General Secretary of England Kabaddi Association, admits “It was so much better and bigger than we expected. Everyone knew it was such a big achievement for English Kabaddi that the World Cup was hosted here. We had massive coverage both here in England and overseas. Even now I’m pinching myself thinking, did that really happen?”

There were 15 broadcast partners worldwide, with an estimated 500 million people tuning in to watch across the world. Sally Hill admitted that although seeing it on TV was amazing, it was a lot of pressure for the England team.

“After every game I had a microphone and camera shoved in my face. It was great, but it built pressure. I was shitting myself from start to finish,” the 36-year-old conceded. “I was slightly calmer leading up to the final, though, because I knew that we’d done so well just to get there. I think we showed the world what UK Kabaddi is all about with the level and intensity that we played at.”

When the big day arrived, the women were first up. Although it wasn’t to be their day, it was not the landslide victory for India that many expected going into the final, with the game finishing 57-34. When the male teams stepped onto the mat, nobody in the building would have predicted a three-point difference between the two sides, but that’s how close the amateur England team were from stealing India’s crown, a nation for whom Kabaddi is the second most watched sport in the country, only behind cricket.

“I’m proud of everyone. The team, the coaches, the background staff, as well as the women’s team, who did fantastically. We inspired a whole nation,” Harry, proclaims contently.

“We wanted the team to play their game and leave absolutely everything on the mat and have no regrets,” he continues. “We weren’t worried. We weren’t scared. We weren’t under pressure. Everyone performed, and we came so close. India are clearly the best, but to be frank, we were a close second. We only lost by three points, which is nothing in this game.”

His teammate Sagar is also proud of their achievements but maintains that he will not be satisfied until they go one better and win the World Cup.

“Everyone underestimated us. Everyone doubted us. Everyone thought it would be an easy win for India. We proved them all wrong.

“We had nothing to lose. We had made it to the finals, which had never been done before. We already made our country proud, so we were happy to be in the final.” Sagar says. “We played with no stress. We can be proud, but I’m still gutted that we didn’t win it, and we will never be satisfied until we win the whole thing, and we will try our best to bring the cup home next time.”

As the dust has settled on a groundbreaking event, a new era for English kabaddi is on the horizon, as schools start to ask how to get involved, and the Kabaddi association hopes to get a higher budget to help them grow the game.

“The World Cup being outside Asia will have a massive impact. We’ve had so many people contact us asking how they can start it in schools.” General Secretary Kawal Das confirms. “For the World Cup we only had amateur players against India’s professionals, but if we got players full-time, we could very easily go one better and beat India.  

“Kabaddi can become mainstream in England now. If we can start at the grassroots level, we will become better and better. There’s potential for the youngsters because they don’t need any expensive equipment. It’s a t-shirt, some shorts, and soft shoes.”

Sally also thinks that the World Cup will lead to the game improving in the UK. There were only three competitive women’s teams this year in Britain: the Wolverhampton Wolf Packs, Nottingham Royals, and Manchester Raiders, but there will now be a push to get more teams playing competitively, with discussions already taking place with Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Cambridge regarding forming teams.

Sally says, “I do genuinely think that the awareness from this tournament will help massively. I went to work the morning after the final, and I could hear myself on the radio. I came home and was cooking dinner for my kids, and I was on ITV and then BBC One and Midlands Today.

“You’re picking your kids up, and everyone’s congratulating you. Everyone knows about it. The parents were asking about children’s Kabaddi. My kids don’t understand what’s going on. Now I’m itching to get back to training and go one better.”

Although this year just getting to the final is huge news because the England team has succeeded, England Kabaddi will be hoping that as the sport grows in the future, winning will become the norm and losing in the final will be seen as failure. Kabaddi may just be about to take off in England, and if it does, the pioneers and overachievers from the World Cup in 2025 will go down in history.