The 2025 Kabaddi World Cup was the second edition of the Kabaddi World Cup held under the authority of

World Kabaddi The Kabaddi World Cup, is an indoor international kabaddi tournament conducted by the World Kabaddi. It follows the standard style (indoors on a rectangular court) and is contested by both men's and women's national teams. The format involves a ...

. It was hosted in the West Midlands, England, during 17–23 March 2025. There were both men's and women's competitions in the tournament. As the event was being held, the

International Kabaddi Federation The International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), is an international governing body of the sport of kabaddi Kabaddi (, ) is a contact team sport played between two teams of seven players. It is one of the traditional games of South Asia. In t ...

(IKF) issued a statement clarifying that the event was not authorised by the IKF and the outcome would not be recognised by the

Olympic Council of Asia The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is a sports governing body, governing body of sports in Asia, currently with 45 member National Olympic Committees. Talal Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was elected as President of the OCA on 8 July 2023. However, on 3 ...

, the Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF), or the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

. The India team won both the men's and women's World Kabaddi championship events, with England as the runner-up in both cases.

History

The previous World Cup organised by World Kabaddi was held in

Melaka Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca. The state is bordered by Negeri Sembilan to the north and west and Johor to t ...

, Malaysia in 2019. A 2020 edition of the tournament was scheduled, but then was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The decision to award the 2025 World Cup to the West Midlands of England was in part due to its hosting of the British Kabaddi League and the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England betw ...

, as well as its significant South Asian community. The event was supported by the

West Midlands Combined Authority The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is the combined authority for the West Midlands metropolitan county in the United Kingdom. It was established on 17 June 2016 by statutory instrument under the Local Democracy, Economic Development ...

. The drawing of groups was held on 7th December 2024. The tournament was initially planned to feature 16 teams in the men's competition and 8 teams in the women's competition. However, due to visa and other challenges, the tournament was later scaled down to 10 teams in the men's and 6 teams in the women's competition.

Venues

Source:

Men's group stage

Group A

* advanced to the

knockout stage A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

Source:

Group B

* advanced to the

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Men's knockout stage

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Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

2025 Kabaddi World Cup 20250322 152702.jpg, Team India after victory 2025 Kabaddi World Cup 20250322 142154 Team England.jpg, Team England after victory 2025 Kabaddi World Cup 20250322 145434 Wales vs India.jpg, India vs Wales 2025 Kabaddi World Cup 20250322 140611 Scotland vs England.jpg, Scotland vs England

3rd place match

Final

Women's group stage

Group D

* advanced to the

Source:

Group E

* advanced to the

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Women's knockout stage

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Semi-finals

3rd place match

2025 Kabaddi World Cup 20250322 122746 W Wales vs Hong Kong.jpg, Wales vs Hong Kong China 2025 Kabaddi World Cup 20250322 122412 Women's Wales.jpg, Team Wales

Final

Broadcasting

Source:

References

{{World championships in kabaddi Kabaddi World Cup (World Kabaddi) Kabaddi World Cup

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

Kabaddi World Cup