PKL Rules and Regulations: Kabaddi is a fast-paced and intense sport which is played between two teams consisting of 7 warriors each in their side. The task for the teams looks simple which is to raid in the opposition’s territory, tag their defenders and return safely to their court. The game of Kabaddi is an ancient sport which has predominantly been played in the rural parts of India. However, the introduction of the Pro Kabaddi League in 2014 in a franchise-based model, similar to Indian Premier League turned Kabaddi into a global sport. Such was the success of the league that it had an unprecedented viewership in terms of the numbers. In its inaugural season itself, Pro Kabaddi Leauge touched a record viewership of 435 million viewers.
Since then the fan-base of Pro Kabaddi League has grown leaps and bounds over the seasons, and it is now the second-most viewed league in the country after IPL. This also led to the League owners to add four new franchises in 2017 to spread the game across the nation.
With its ever-increasing popularity, the new fan-base is trying to learn about the basics of the game. So let’s take a look at basic rules and regulations of the Pro Kabaddi League.
Pro Kabaddi Field of Play and its Dimensions:
- The Pro Kabaddi field of play area shall be measuring a minimum of 17 meters x 18 meters and maximum of 20 meters x 20 meters and the field of play shall be covered with the AKFI approved playing mats.
- The court is an area which comes within the field of play and shall be measuring 13 meters x 10 meters. The court is the area on which the Pro Kabaddi matches shall be conducted.
Terms and Definitions used in a Game or a Match:
- End Line: End Lines are the four boundary lines which form the court together, and every end line shall be of 3 to 5 cm width.
- Lobby: Lobby is formed by using the yellow stripes on both sides of the court measuring 1 meter in width.
- Mid Line: Mid Line is the line which divides the field of play into two equal halves.
- Half-Court: Half-Court is each half of the court divided by the midline.
- Baulk Line: Baulk line is each of the two lines in court parallel to the midline at a distance of 3.75 meters in both halves.
- Bonus Line: Bonus line is the line between the balkline and end line in both halves. There is a distance of 1 meter between Bonus line and Baulk line.
- Raider: The player who enters into the opponents’ half-court with the cant is known as the raider. Every raider must begin his cant before entering the opponents’ half-court and crossing the midline.
- Defender: Every player who is in his half-court when the raider from the opponents’ side is raiding shall be called as a defender.
General Rules of the Game:
- Kabaddi is a game played between two teams who play on the opposite sides of the kabaddi court.
- The objective of the game is to score the maximum number of points possible before the full-time whistle.
- Each team shall consist of a minimum 10 and maximum of 12 players in the squad. Only 7 Players shall play at a time, and the remaining 5 players are substitutes.
- The game of Kabaddi can be divided into two aspects of attacking and defending as the points can be scored both during attacking and defending.
- Attacking involves a raider entering into the opponents’ side to touch as many defenders as he can and return safely to his side.
- Defending involves preventing the opponents’ raider tagging members of the team and stopping him from getting back to his own half.
- Players who got out will be revived in the same order as they got out.
- The team with the highest number of points at the end of the game shall be declared the winner.
Rules during the Raid:
- A raid shall be considered valid only if the raider crosses the balkline.
- The raider must keep chanting ‘Kabaddi’ during the raid. He should start chanting before entering the opponents’ court, and he can only stop once he returns to his court. If the raider pauses momentarily during the raid, then he has to get back to his own court.
- The defenders cannot grab the raider by anything other than his limbs and torso. It is carefully inspected by the officials.
- Players cannot step out of the court, and doing so will result in the loss of a point. Also, the lobby will only be active when the raider has made contact with a defender.
- The raids in which the raider returns to his court without earning any points are called as Empty raids. There cannot be 3 successive empty raids in the Pro Kabaddi League. The attacking team has to make a ‘Do-or-Die’ raid after 2 successive empty raids. If they fail to score a point in the ‘Do-or-Die’ raid, then the raider shall be declared out, and the defending team earns a point.
Rules for Extra Points:
- Bonus Line: The bonus line is only active when the defending team has more than 5 players present on the mat. If the raider manages to cross the bonus line in a raid, then he will earn an extra point.
Note: To cross the Bonus line, the raider has to come into contact with the ground between the End line and Bonus line. At the same time, none of his body parts should have contact with the ground between the midline and Bonus line.
- All Out: If all the players of a team are tagged out, it will be termed as an all-out. The opposing team will earn two extra points in such a case.
- Super Tackle: If the defending team manages to get hold of the raider with 3 or fewer defenders on the mat, then it is called a super tackle, and the defending team earns an extra point.
Substitution:
- Five of the reserve players can be substituted with the permission of Referee.
- Substituted Players can be re-substituted.
- If any player is suspended or disqualified from the match then no substitution is allowed for that particular player. The team shall play with less number of players.
- Substitution is not allowed for players who are out.
- Any number of substitutions will be allowed during a game with the permission of Referee only.
Technical Rules:
- During the matches, each team will have one unsuccessful referral to challenge the decision made by the Referee. The final umpire decision will be made with the help of T.V. umpire based on replays available.
- In each half, each team is entitled to one In-Play coach consultation. The maximum duration of the consultation is 20 seconds or till the ongoing-raid is finished, whichever finishes first.
Duration of the Match:
The total duration of the match in the Pro Kabaddi League is 40 minutes. In every game, there shall be two halves of 20 minutes each with 5 Minutes interval between the halves. The teams will change sides after the interval, and the number of players for each team shall remain the same at the start of the second half as it was at the end of the first half.
Note: The last raid of each half of the game shall be allowed to be completed even after completion of the scheduled time as mentioned above.
Individual Awards
Green Sleeve: Top raider with the maximum number of raiding points in the match.
Saffron Sleeve: Top defender with the maximum number of points in the match.
