Kho Kho touch: A World Cup with newcomers gets underway

The designated Fan Village at the Indira Gandhi Arena, known commonly as Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, was abuzz with flags from various countries spanning across continents as the captains and the coaching staff of the Kho Kho teams were introduced on the stage.

There are 23 nations competing in the Kho Kho World Cup that gets underway on the evening of January 13 with the opening ceremony followed by competitive matches from January 14.

While India are the favourites for having played the sport for a much longer time there are several countries in fray that began playing the sport as recently as a year ago or even a couple months ago.

Cedric Habbe and his German team have been playing the sport for the past three months and are looking forward to just gaining the experience of competing.

“We got introduced to Kho Kho by a friend who is in India. He came back to Germany and introduced it to us and we all took it up. We are very excited about participating in the World Cup,” said Habbe, who used to be a local footballer and hails from Bremen. He, however, moved to Berlin to work for a sports management company.

Cedric Habbe is with the German team

Habbe plays as an attacker and is thrilled to represent Germany for the first time in a World Cup.

“It is a great challenge. Kho Kho combines many aspects of many sports. I am a football player, the strategy and communication is there, but it is much more explosive and faster so it is a great challenge. I have been playing for three months so we are going to have a hard time.”

He says that being grouped with Malaysia will help them pick the aspects from others.

“Countries like Malaysia, we will learn a lot from them. We play Australia and England. As a German there is a bit of heat against England so we want to do well against them. Against Australia, we have a chance. We are very new to the sport but we will give it all.”

Indonesia too is fairly new to the sport. Most of the players from the South East Asian nation hail from the island of Bali.

Ni Made Dwi Widhi Lestari, who is leading the women’s team, used to play kabaddi before. She says she began learning the sport a year ago. 

Ni Made Dwi Widhi Lestari of Indonesia was into Kabaddi earlier

“I started playing Kho Kho last year. We know that our team is new in Kho Kho. But we can play and give our best. We learnt Kho Kho with our coach, they gave us extra practice to prepare for the competition. Sometimes we practice out and sometimes in indoor. We try our best to learn in kho kho in the limited facilities we have.”

Widhi, as she is commonly known, says they also used Youtube to learn the sport.

“We used Youtube channel to learn the sport and discussed it with coaches and friends.”

Silvana Perez Leon, Peru’s men’s team coach, is a woman who says that the sport of Kho Kho goes well with the characteristics the Peruvians have.

“Kho Kho is a recent sport but we really have enjoyed playing it. We have found that it requires a lot of the characteristics the Peruvians have -- the agility, strength, stamina. It has been really fun to get to know the sport,” said Silvana.

Silvana Perez Leon says Kho Kho fits in with characteristics of Peruvians 

“Last year, around July, we started playing and started to know about the sport. We have a team of 30 players that have come to India. We had more people that play. We have made the selection of the best ones for the World Cup.”

This is their first time in India.

“We received training and support from the international federation and also recommendation from colleagues that are from India. We have tried to do our best to pick the sport and to really learn the rules and study, so we can have a good score and competition here at the World Cup.”

Leslie Boadu of Ghana plays as a defender and began learning Kho Kho just two months ago.

“We had to get players from different clubs and games. We began and took the team to university and started training them there and picking up training sessions. We had to build the field, prepare everything and place everything. We had to engage coaches from other sports to help us grow the sport,” says Boadu.

“We started Kho Kho in the university, my coach called me. He saw my skills. It is not really popular there. When we start playing, people come and ask us what type of game is this. I have to explain it. I have to explain the game and how it is played.”

Leslie Boadu of Ghana says they had seek players from other sports

There are three coaches in Ghana and two of them have come to India. 

Amir Hossain Muqaddam Bagha, the captain of the Iranian team, has visited India earlier for Kho Kho and leads a side that has a strong chance of making the final.

Iranians have a habit of picking Indian sports well. They are the one nation to have challenged India in kabaddi recently.

“Two years ago we came to Assam and we participated in Asin Championships in Kabaddi and Kho Kho,” says Irani men’s captain  Amir Hossain Muqaddam Bagha.

Saeid Moghaddam Bagha, the President of the Iranian federation has prepared a batch of 34 players – men and women.

Amir Hossain Muqaddam Bagha says Kho Kho is popular in Iran

Skipper Bagha says they have practiced a lot over the last two years so much that they are playing better now.

“We had played in 2022-2023 in Assam. People everywhere in Iran know Kho Kho very well. There is a huge craze in Sistan and Balochistan and a lot of women in Kerman play Kho Kho. We want to reach the final of the tournament.”

Tags : Kho Kho World Cup, Germany, Iran, Ghana, Peru, Indonesia, Indira Gandhi Arena