The Kabaddi World Cup enters its third edition, with the tournament set to kick off on the 7 October with its first fixture between hosts and strong favourites India, as well as South Korea.
The tournament was earlier inaugurated by the President of the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) Janardan Singh Gehlot at an event in the host city of Ahmedabad, with the captains of the 12 participating teams also present at the venue.
Captains of the 12 participating teams with the trophy. Image courtesy: Kabaddi World Cup organisers.
India are grouped with South Korea, Australia, Bangladesh, Argentina and England, while Iran, USA, Japan, Poland, Thailand and Kenya are the teams that form the second pool. The tournament will be played initially in round-robin format, before it progresses to the semi-finals. The grand final will take place on 22 October.
IKF president Gehlot had earlier offered words of praise for the tournament, describing it as a big step towards globalising the sport.
"This is the watershed moment for the sport of Kabaddi globally. The International Kabaddi Federation has been working to develop Kabaddi as a competitive discipline. With 2016 Kabaddi World Cup, the sport is all set to breakthrough on a global stage," Gehlot was quoted as saying in a press release by the organisers of the tournament.
All the matches of the tournament will take place at The Arena by TransStadia in the host city of Ahmedabad. The trophy for the event was earlier unveiled by the newly-elected Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, in the host city.
Full schedule of the Kabaddi World Cup 2016 (Indian fixtures in bold):
| 2016 Kabaddi World Cup schedule |
| 7 October, 20:00 hrs IST: India vs South Korea : |
| 7 October, 21:00 hrs IST: USA vs Iran |
| 8 October, 19:00 hrs IST: England vs Bangladesh |
| 8 October, 20:00 hrs IST: Poland vs Kenya |
| 8 October, 21:00 hrs IST: India vs Australia |
| 9 October, 19:00 hrs IST: Argentina vs South Korea |
| 9 October, 20:00 hrs IST: United States vs Japan |
| 9 October, 21:00 hrs IST: Iran vs Thailand |
| 10 October, 20:00 hrs IST: England vs Australia |
| 10 October, 21:00 IST hrs IST: Poland vs Thailand |
| 11 October, 20:00 hrs IST: Iran vs Kenya |
| 11 October, 21:00 hrs IST: India vs Bangladesh |
| 12 October, 20:00 hrs IST: Poland vs Japan
12 October, 21:00 hrs IST: Australia vs Argentina |
| 13 October, 20:00 hrs IST: Thailand vs Kenya |
| 13 October, 21:00 hrs IST: Bangladesh vs South Korea |
| 14 October, 20:00 hrs IST: England vs Argentina |
| 14 October, 21:00 hrs IST: United States vs Poland |
| 15 October, 19:00 hrs IST: South Korea vs Australia |
| 15 October, 20:00 hrs IST: Japan vs Iran |
| 15 October, 21:00 hrs IST: India vs Argentina |
| 16 October, 19:00 hrs IST: Thailand vs United States |
| 16 October, 20:00 hrs IST: South Korea vs England |
| 16 October, 21:00 hrs IST: Japan vs Kenya |
| 17 October, 20:00 hrs IST: Poland vs Iran |
| 17 October, 21:00 hrs IST: Australia vs Bangladesh |
| 18 October, 20:00 hrs IST: United States vs Kenya |
| 18 October, 21:00 hrs IST: India vs England |
| 19 October, 20:00 hrs IST: Bangladesh vs Argentina |
| 19 October, 21:00 hrs IST: Thailand vs Japan |
| Semifinals: |
| 21 October, 20:00 hrs IST: South Korea vs Iran |
| 21 October, 21:00 hrs IST: India vs Thailand |
| Final: |
| 22 October, 21:00 hrs IST: TBA vs TBA |
| Venue |
| The Arena by TransStadia, Ahmedabad |
Where to watch:
The matches will be telecast on the channels Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 3 as well as in their HD versions. For those who do not have access to a television, one can simply log on to Hotstar.com to catch all the action online.
Updated Date: Oct 21, 2016 18:31 PM
