Ahmedabad's Kabaddi Stage: A Commonwealth Step or an Olympic Illusion?

In a hotel conference hall in Ahmedabad, the jersey, the logo and the mascot were laid out together for unveiling. Three chairs on the stage — one for the organiser, one for the IKF (International Kabaddi Federation) General Secretary, and one for a representative of the city preparing to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games. 62 matches, 9 days, 13 nations — and one line on paper: "to take kabaddi to a wider global audience." In the years I have spent reading kabaddi trial lists, auction sheets and team sheets, I have learned one thing: when a tournament announces its purpose before its name, read the document before the sport.

This is the inaugural edition of the Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship. It is being held in Ahmedabad, organised by the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) with IKF sanction. The participant list, apart from India, includes Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Canada, England, Scotland, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. There will be 39 men's matches and 23 women's matches. The semifinals are on October 30 and the final on October 31. India's men's captain is Surjeet Singh and vice-captain Naveen Kumar; the women's captain is Nidhi Sharma and vice-captain Ritu.

One clarification is necessary here, because it is often blurred in kabaddi coverage. This tournament is being played in Standard Style — the rectangular court (13m × 10m) used in the Pro Kabaddi League, not the circular Circle Style of rural Punjab. But the original report never states this. That small omission is large, because if you want to compare this tournament's numbers with the Asian Games or the PKL, you need to know which rules applied.

The real story is not on the mat but in the participant list.

Look at that list. Iran is not there. Pakistan is not there. South Korea is not there. That is to say, the three nations that have posed the biggest challenge to India in kabaddi over the past decade are nowhere in this draw. Iran's absence is the biggest — at the 2026 Jakarta Asian Games semifinal, Iran beat India 27-18, and since then I have named Iran as co-favourite in every preview. It is not here. The reason is structural: Iran is not a Commonwealth member. Pakistan is not either. This competition is between countries that are part of the Commonwealth family, not between those strongest in kabaddi.

Pause on one number: 62 matches, 9 days, 13 nations. That is an average of seven matches a day. This is a compact showcase, not a deep round-robin. Across 13 nations, roughly 400 players — men and women combined — means an average of about 30 people per delegation. That number tells you this event prioritises participation over intensity. And when participation is the priority, competitive credibility automatically declines.

India's title is near-certain — and that is this event's biggest weakness.

I write this with full confidence, because over several seasons I have kept my own ledger of PKL raiders' bonus-line attempts, cant discipline and tackle zones. On the basis of that ledger I can say: no other country in this field is at India's level. Kabaddi is Bangladesh's national sport, but its professional structure is weak. Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are seeing grassroots growth, but they will not stand up to India's PKL-trained players. The teams from Canada, England, Scotland, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia are largely diaspora-based — players of Indian origin living there, not domestically developed talent. That creates the illusion of global reach, not actual reach.

Now the part that outsiders most misread. This event is being presented as a stepping stone to the Olympics. IKF General Secretary Tejasvi Gehlot says the aim is to introduce the sport to a wider global audience. But the conditions for Olympic inclusion — broad continental coverage, a developed women's game, stable governance — none of them are demonstrated by this event. Six of the 13 countries are among the Commonwealth's 56 members, and several of those are non-traditional markets. The Olympic road is long; the Commonwealth 2030 road is shorter and more realistic. I believe the real target is Ahmedabad 2030, not the Olympics — and the report has conflated the two ambitions.

And one thing entirely missing from this event's story: money.

No broadcaster named, no sponsor, no prize purse, no ticketing information. An event that calls itself a stepping stone to the Commonwealth Games should at least have announced its commercial partners. This silence tells you one of two things: either coverage is limited to streaming or a public channel, or commercial interest is modest. Either way, the "global reach" claim weakens. The elaborate rollout of jersey, logo and mascot is a low-cost legitimacy signal — typical of inaugural events seeking institutional recognition rather than immediate revenue.

Now the thing that stings me most, and the most honest thing in this entire event: the women's draw. 23 matches, named captain and vice-captain. This is genuine institutional positivity for a sport where the PKL — kabaddi's commercial engine — has no women's league at all. The Indian women's team has four Asian Games gold medals and no league to be erased from. Here they have a platform. But do not over-read it as professional development — the report mentions no women's league, no mechanism to carry this platform forward. Having a stage and building a pathway are two different things.

So what does this event really mean?

It is a procedurally legitimate but competitively thin institutional advocacy event. Its purpose is to build the case for kabaddi's inclusion in the 2030 Ahmedabad Commonwealth Games. But Iran's absence, a diaspora-heavy field and a complete lack of commercial transparency mean the "global reach" claim currently outruns its evidence.

For those who see this event as a big moment in kabaddi's internationalisation, one question: if Iran and Pakistan are absent from the next edition too, will this championship ever reach the standing the Asian Games has? And for those talking about the Olympics: will there be even a women's PKL exhibition before Commonwealth 2030? Until both questions are answered, this Ahmedabad stage is a good start — just a start, not a destination.