Khelo India Beach Games: Exciting times ahead as kabaddi moves from mat to sand

Kabaddi's main form that’s played on a mat is quite popular in India, is a medal sport in the Asian Games, and hosts a very popular kabaddi league. However, beach kabaddi is a new concept. Last year, when the Diu Beach Games were organized, beach kabaddi was also a part of the programme.

Simrat Gaikwad, working in the capacity of a venue coordinator and senior coach at the Ghoghla beach, the epicenter for all eight KIBG games, including two demonstration ones, believes these are exciting times for beach kabaddi. “It’s a new concept. Khelo India Beach Games are a great platform for the sport. It will definitely help popularize the sport,” she said.

Delhi girls kabaddi team coach Sunita also has high hopes. “It’s a totally different setting with the beautiful sea in the background. Kabaddi is, anyway, quite popular in India. Hopefully, beach kabaddi will make a mark too,” she said.

Beach kabaddi is more challenging than the popular kabaddi in that here you are dealing with the elements. For example, if a player's feet are partially or fully buried in sand and it makes movements difficult. The matches are played in the open under the sun and require more stamina. Sea breeze also picks up at times, and at other times, there is no sign of it. So, all these aspects affect a player’s performance, making beach kabaddi all the more challenging.

Sunita also added that non-coastal states have a little extra to deal with since the conditions here are totally alien to them. “The artificial sand turf that we have is good, but the environment here is totally different and much more challenging,” she told SAI Media.

Gaikwad, who has participated in seven national championships and has multiple laurels to her name, is currently based in Thane, Mumbai. She believes the sport has a future, even though at present there is a lot of progress to be made. “Once these events happen often, more and more people will gravitate towards it. You want to have a viable career option. Once that happens, beach kabaddi can grow in a desired way,” she said.

While the essence of beach kabaddi is pretty similar to that of popular kabaddi, in terms of rules and regulations it’s slightly different. For example, it has four players on a side instead of seven. Instead of 20 minutes each, both halves here are 15 minutes each. Players can’t be revived either. It’s a smaller field of play to boot. All these have been incorporated into the sport, keeping in mind the challenging conditions at beaches.

At KIBG 2025, teams have been divided into two pools, across boys and girls, with eight teams each. The top two teams from these groups will advance to the semifinals. The beach kabaddi matches kicked off on Tuesday, and both the finals will be played on the last day of the KIBG on Saturday.