Rain threat looms

While the organisers have worked tirelessly to ensure the courts are ready for the 63rd Senior National Kabaddi Championships, the rain gods could yet play spoilsport.

Rains in the city have given the tournament organisers a tough time as they have not been able to lay out the synthetic mats with the constant possibilities of thundershowers looming overhead. While the organisers remain hopeful, the decision to hold the event outdoors is one that will baffle most.

But  Prasad Rao, technical director of the International Kabaddi Federation, anal­ysed that with this being the last National Championships where the men’s and women’s will be held together, the space restraints in terms of the courts were a concern. “There is no indoor stadium in the country that can accomodate six courts and we require that many courts to accomodate the match schedule. In addition, with Bengaluru being the Mecca of kabaddi, the audiences are large and hence we would like to accomodate as many people as possible. That will not be possible indoors.”

Another feature of this edition of the championships will be the introduction of two new rules, which have been adapted after its success in the PKL.

The first will be the 30 second rule, where a raid can last a maximum of 30 secon­ds.  “The move to implement the­se rule changes was to hasten the general pace of the raid and in the larger picture, the game,” added Rao.

The other rule change is with respect to the ‘super tackle’. If there are less than three anti-raiders during a raid, an unsuccessful raid by the opponent will give them a bonus point.