Kabaddi is a contact team sport played between two teams of seven players, originating in ancient India. The objective of the game is for a single player on offense, referred to as a "raider", to run into the opposing team's half of the court, touch out as many of their players as possible, and return to their own half of the court, all without being tackled by the defenders in 30 seconds. Points are scored for each player tagged by the raider, while the opposing team earns a point for stopping the raider. Players are taken out of the game if they are touched or tackled, but are brought back in for each point scored by their team from a tag or a tackle.
Kho kho is a traditional Indian sport that dates back to ancient India. It is the second-most popular traditional tag game in the Indian subcontinent after kabaddi. Kho kho is played on a rectangular court with a central lane connecting two poles which are at either end of the court. During the game, nine players from the chasing team are on the field, with eight of them sitting (crouched) in the central lane, while three runners from the defending team run around the court and try to avoid being touched. Each sitting player on the chasing team faces the opposite half of the field that their adjacent teammates are facing.
Basketball is the most popular sport overall in Asia. Cricket is the second most popular sport in Asia, and is most popular in South Asia. Other popular sports in Asia include association football, baseball, badminton and table tennis among others. There are also some traditional sports that are popular in certain regions of Asia, such as the South Asian sports kabaddi and kho-kho, and sepak takraw in Southeast Asia. Top sporting nations/regions in Asia include China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
India has a history of sports dating back thousands of years. Cricket is the most popular spectator sport; it generates the highest television viewership, with the Indian Premier League (IPL) being the most-followed league in the country. Football has also gained popularity, with the Indian Super League (ISL) being the highest level of domestic football, and the national team winning multiple gold medals at the Asian and South Asian Games. Additional football accomplishments include India having reached the semifinal of the 1960 Olympics, qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, and won the SAFF Championship. Other sports include kabaddi, badminton, tennis, and athletics, with kho-kho becoming the fourth-most viewed sport. India has also had success in field hockey, winning the World Cup and multiple medals in the Olympic Games. Sports such as golf, rugby, boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, motorsport, wrestling, and basketball are featured throughout the country.
Seven stones is a traditional game from the Indian subcontinent involving a ball and a pile of flat stones, generally played between two teams in a large outdoor area.
Kabaddi, is a contact sport, native to the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the most popular sports in India, played mainly among people in villages. India has taken part in four Asian Games in kabaddi, and won gold in all of them. Four forms of kabaddi played in India are Amar, Suranjeevi, huttuttoo, and Gaminee. Amar is generally played in Punjab, Haryana, the United States, Canada, and other parts of the world, mostly by Punjabi sportsmen. Suranjeevi is the most played form of kabaddi in India and the world. This is the form used in international matches generally and played in Asian Games. Huttuttoo was played by men in Maharashtra. In Gaminee style, seven players play on each side and a player put out has to remain out until all his team members are out. The team that is successful in outing all the players of the opponent's side secures a point. The game continues until five or seven such points are secured and has no fixed time duration.
The South Asian diaspora, also known as the Desi diaspora, is the group of people whose ancestral origins lie in South Asia, but who live outside the region. There are about 40 million members of the diaspora.
India women's national kabaddi team represents India in international women's kabaddi competitions.
Many sports are played by the people of Tamil Nadu including both traditional sports and sports from other countries.
Sports is an integral part of culture in Maharashtra. Cricket is the most popular spectator sport in the state.
South Asian culture is a mixture of several cultures in and around the Indian subcontinent. Ancient South Asian culture was primarily based in Hinduism, which itself formed as a mixture of Vedic religion and indigenous traditions, and later Buddhist influences. From the medieval era onwards, influences from the Muslim world and then Europe also became prevalent.
Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG), are the annual national level multidisciplinary grassroot games in India held in January or February for two categories, namely under-17 years school students and under-21 college students. Every year best 1,000 kids will be given an annual scholarship of ₹5 lakh (US$6,300) for 8 years to prepare them for the international sporting events.
Sports retain a very valuable position in the culture of Gujarat. Some of the popular sports played in Gujarat are cricket, kho-kho, badminton, football, kabaddi and table tennis. The Sports Authority of Gujarat presides and supervises the sporting activities under the Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Department. There have been many successful and popular initiatives undertaken by the authority to encourage the sports culture in Gujarat, Khel Mahakumbh' being an example. Gujarat has various levels of sports competitions including events of both larger and smaller scales.
The India–Pakistan rivalry is one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world. Any sport involving these two sides, form one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world, especially cricket. The tense relations between the two nations which emerged from bitter diplomatic relationships and conflict that originated during the Partition of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947, the Indo-Pakistani Wars, and the Kashmir conflict established the foundations for the emergence of an intense sporting rivalry between the two nations.
Sports broadcasting contracts in India include:
India has several traditional games and sports, some of which have been played for thousands of years. Their popularity has greatly declined in the modern era, with Western sports having overtaken them in India during the British Raj, and the Indian government now making some efforts to revive them. Many of these games do not require much equipment or playing space. Some of them are only played in certain regions of India, or may be known by different names and played under different rules and regulations in different regions of the country. Many Indian games are also similar to other traditional South Asian games.
Pakistan has many traditional games played in the rural and urban areas of the country.
South Asia has many traditional games and sports. Two of them, kabaddi and kho-kho, are played at the South Asian Games, with kabaddi also featuring at the Asian Games. Many of these games are played across the entire subcontinent under different names and with some rule variations, while some of these games may be played only in certain countries or regions.
The Chhattisgarhiya Olympics are an annual sports event held in Chhattisgarh, India to celebrate traditional Indian games such as kabaddi and kho-kho, as well as to promote sports participation among rural people and women. The event takes place over three months. The first edition was held in 2022, with around 2.6 million Chattisgarhis participating, and about 1,900 of them reaching the state-level finals. Over 3 million Chattisgarhis likely participated in the 2023 edition.
Nepal has many traditional games that are similar to other traditional South Asian games. Many of these games were played during local cultural festivals, but are now disappearing because of technological influence and globalisation.
