Heart-break for Karnataka men as they miss the bus

 In a slip between the cup and the lip, Karnataka men’s team went tumbling out of the National kabaddi championships late on Friday after initial calculations had shown them to have entered the knockouts.

The top two teams in each group of the league stage qualify for the knockouts and in Group E, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Karnataka all finished with four wins and one loss, tying for the top spot.

In case of a tie, the Pro Kabaddi League employs a simple rule that is based on points difference while the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India uses a complicated system.

The rule states: 'If there is a tie in the league points scored in the league system, the winner and runner-up will be decided on the basis of For and Against points scored using the following formula:

‘A team which scores less than 25 percent of the available league points will not be considered for For and Against formula.

‘To decide the tie, For and Against points of the concerned teams against teams which scored 25 percent or more of the league points will be considered and the difference is calculated. The team which has the highest score difference will be declared the winner .'
Applying this rule, the three teams’ (Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Karnataka) score difference against West Bengal -- the fourth placed team in the group that had scored 25 percent of the total available points — had to be calculated. That left Karnataka in third place in the group and out of the reckoning for a place in the knockouts.

“It is a slightly complicated rule but it is one that we have used for years,” said International Kabaddi Federation Technical Director Prasad Rao. “We have brought in a lot of rule changes for this year's championship and this is something we will change in the next edition. We are going to adopt the difference in points rule from next time as it is more convenient.”

Whatever that might be, the final outcome left Karnataka players a dejected lot. “The news came as a shock to us as well because we were sure that the team had qualified,” said Karnataka raider Prashanth Rai.

He added that there were areas where their tactics could have hurt them. “There were a few games where we took a huge lead and gave the junior members a chance as we knew we couldn't lose. That tactic has hurt us. It just goes to show that in a league format, every point is important.”