The circle came first.
Before the mat, the floodlights and the league, kabaddi was played on open ground inside a chalked circle. That game is still alive across Haryana and Punjab — and it still has almost no path from a village field to a national stage. We're building one.
What circle kabaddi is
Also called national style, it's the outdoor form of the game: two teams, one circular field around 22 metres across, split down the middle into two courts. There's far more ground to cover than on the indoor mat most people see on television, which makes it a running game as much as a wrestling one.
It's the version that still produces a large share of state and police-department players in north India. What it doesn't have is structure — no regular calendar, no clear route upward, and very little money reaching the grounds where it's actually played.
How we're building it
Start small and self-funded, prove it works on real grounds, then scale. Nothing here depends on funding arriving first.
One-day events at schools and colleges
Run on internal funds, with a prize purse for the winning teams and support for the institutions that host.
A record of real events
Results, participation numbers, footage and testimonials from every event — the track record that makes the next step possible.
State tournaments, then a league
Grow from single-day events into a structured state calendar, and in time a professional circle kabaddi league.
Who's behind it
The Foundation is run by people who played the game and served in the departments that kept it alive.
Satish Kumar Yadav
Retired Deputy Superintendent of Police. Played circle kabaddi and judo at international level between 1987 and 2010.