With 11 teams divided into two pools participating in a league-cum-knockout format, Australia will face an uphill task against India in their opening game on 8th October 2016.
The tournament is scheduled to start from 7 October 2016 and will end on 22 October 2016.
Apart from Australia, other countries who will participate in 2016 Kabaddi World Cup include India, United States, Canada, UK, Iran, Poland, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan and Kenya.
The teams have been divided into two groups. Group A consists of India, Bangladesh, South Korea, Australia, England and Argentina, and Group B will have Iran, Thailand, Japan, USA, Poland and Kenya.
In a conversation with SBS Punjabi’s Preetinder Grewal, Jasvir Singh ‘Jassa’ (Singh Sabha Kabaddi player) and Sudip Chakrobarty have provided updates regarding the Australian Kabaddi team’s preparations for the upcoming Kabaddi World Cup 2016.
Essendon Football Club is the proud supporter of this Australian Kabaddi team. Jeremy Arnold, Essendon’s Head of Communications has informed that the Indian origin Kabaddi players and ‘footy players’ are training hard at Essendon Football Club’s spiritual home, Windy Hill for their preparations to represent Australia at the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup.
“The final training session was held on Wednesday night before they fly out for Ahmedabad on October 2nd, 2016.”
All the matches of 2016 KWC will be held at the Arena by TransStadia, upcoming state-of-the-art stadium in Ahmedabad.
Australian Kabaddi team's training session at Windy Hills/Essendon Source: Supplied
Team India will play first match against South Korea in the opening match of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup on October 7.
India has won all the gold medals since 1990 when Kabaddi became a part of Asian Games. India always dominated the Kabaddi World Cup in both men’s and women’s category.
Kabaddi World Cup was first played in the year 2004, then in 2007 and after that, it was organized annually from 2010 onwards.
“The phenomenal success of Pro Kabaddi and the participation of players from around the world is a testament to kabaddi’s promise as a global sport. We are delighted and proud to have India host 12 countries for the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup,” Janardan Singh Gehlot, president of IKF said.
Star Sports is the official broadcaster of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup and all the matches will be aired on the Star Sports network channels on TV while live streaming will be available on HotStar.
The semi-finals of the tournament will be held on 21 October with the summit clash slated for the next day.
International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) president Janardan Singh Gehlot, meanwhile, said their aim now is to take the sport to the Olympics.
"We already took kabaddi to Asiad but now we want to take it to the Olympics. We want people to play kabaddi all across the world," he said.
The event will help to showcase the game of Kabbadi internationally and contribute to gain the much needed and deserved recognition for this sport which is very popular in the Indian Subcontinent.
Full schedule:
7th October: India vs South Korea, USA vs Iran
8th October: England vs Bangladesh, Poland vs Kenya, India vs Australia
9th October: South Korea vs Argentina, USA vs Japan, Thailand vs Iran
10th October: England vs Australia, Thailand vs Poland
11th October: Iran vs Kenya, India vs Bangladesh
12th October: Poland vs Japan, Australia vs Argentina
13th October: Thailand vs Kenya, Bangladesh vs South Korea
14th October: England vs Argentina, USA vs Poland
15th October: South Korea vs Australia, Iran vs Japan, India vs Argentina
16th October: Thailand vs USA, England vs South Korea, Japan vs Kenya
17th October: Poland vs Iran, Australia vs Bangladesh
18th October: USA vs Kenya, India vs England
19th October: Bangladesh vs Argentina, Thailand vs Japan
21st October: Semi-finals
22nd October: Final
