Kabaddi matches seen by millions - organisers

The Kabaddi World Cup will go to its final stages this weekend with events including Sunday's final sold out - and an audience of millions are expected to stream the matches online.

Taking place in the West Midlands, it is the first time the tournament has been held outside Asia with matches this week taking place in Coventry, Wolverhampton, Walsall and Birmingham.

Prem Singh, chief executive of the British Kabaddi League, said the audience on the Indian subcontinent alone had been more than 40m, with events shown on social media and other platforms.

"The atmosphere has been brilliant, the spirit of sportsmanship has been amazing – unbelievable so far," he said.

The main achievement had been bringing communities together, he said.

"The whole spirit is about that it's different, diverse communities of the West Midlands and the UK celebrating a sporting culture," he said.

England's Kabaddi team had seen Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and white players all come together with a chance to wear an England kit, Mr Singh said, adding: "That's huge."

Those young people taking part were the role models of the future, he said.

"For us in this country, south Asians have very little chance to represent England at an international sport, whereas here we are - the majority of players are south Asian and every time they do a good tackle they kiss the badge.

"Just having a south Asian and diverse community wearing an England top or a Scotland top – that's the real story and that's the success."

Mr Singh said it had been "wonderful" that authorities including Birmingham City Council, Walsall, Coventry and Wolverhampton had come together.

"We're so thankful for people who have been working with us, especially Wolverhampton council," he said."

He added Wolverhampton's council had done "an amazing job", saying: "Everybody from the drivers, who drive the minibuses to bring the teams here, to the operational staff – we couldn't be happier with the help and guidance that we've got."

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