First Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship in Ahmedabad: India Women Face Malaysia, Men Take On England

When India's women's team logs its first raid toward the corner against Malaysia on Friday at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad, the first number written in that scorebook will tell the real story of this tournament. Running from October 23 to 31, the nine-day championship features 23 teams from 13 nations across 62 matches — 39 men's and 23 women's. This is the inaugural Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship, staged in the very city preparing to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games. In the notebooks I have filled on mud courts outside Warangal and Satara, the first page has always said the same thing: a tournament's true depth rarely shows in the opening ceremony — it shows in the first raid. Nidhi Sharma's Indian women's side faces Malaysia at 6:45 PM, while Surjeet Singh's men take on England at 8:30 PM. The day opens at 11:00 AM with Kenya versus Singapore in a men's Group B fixture. The men's competition has 13 teams in two groups. India sits in Group A with Nigeria, Malaysia, Uganda, England, Tanzania and Sri Lanka; Group B comprises Bangladesh, Kenya, Canada, Australia, Scotland and Singapore. The women's event has 10 teams in two groups of five. India shares Group A with Singapore, Nigeria, Uganda and Malaysia; Group B features Bangladesh, Kenya, England, Scotland and Sri Lanka. India's 14-member men's squad includes vice-captain Naveen Kumar, Sachin Tanwar, Pankaj Mohite, Bharat Hooda, Shubham Shinde and Parvesh Bhainswal. Ritu is the women's vice-captain, with Muskan Sharma, Riya Kumari, Simran Kamboj and Karthika Ramesh in the squad. After the opener, the men face Uganda on October 24, Malaysia on October 25, Nigeria on October 26, Tanzania on October 27 and Sri Lanka on October 29. The women meet Singapore on October 24, Uganda on October 25 and Nigeria on October 26. The top two from each group reach the October 30 semifinals, with both finals on October 31. The Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India is organising the event with approval from the International Kabaddi Federation. The first question here is not how many matches India will win. It is what this tournament proves about the economy and selection logic of Indian kabaddi. Since 2026, the sport's biggest chunk has been built around franchise auctions, crore-rupee contracts and television ratings. The defining feature of this championship is that it carries no franchise name, no state flag — just the country's name. India has been placed in men's Group A alongside Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, emerging African kabaddi powers. In recent years Kenya and Uganda have fielded their national sides in regular international fixtures, and their physical capacity has never been easy for India. But one factual point must be recorded: India's record in international kabaddi matters most at the Asian Games, where the men's team lost the 2026 Jakarta semifinal 18-27 to Iran — the first missed men's gold since 2026. Since then, every major tournament has opened with the same question: is India's selection process performance-based or reputation-based? This championship is a rare chance to answer it, because Iran is absent — the Commonwealth frame excludes India's toughest rival of the past decade. That is both the most interesting and the riskiest aspect of this tournament. Without Iran, India is the natural favourite, but being favourite and winning are two different things. I watched that 2026 Jakarta semifinal live from a hostel room and wrote nothing for three weeks afterward. That experience taught me that 'guaranteed gold' is a media habit, not a sporting fact. So this time I am logging one thing before the first raid: India's real test will come against Sri Lanka (October 29) and Nigeria (October 26), because both sides have been strong in tackle-based defence. Naveen Kumar is vice-captain and his raid-success rate has stayed consistently high across recent seasons, but in a tournament the captain Surjeet Singh's role will determine defensive depth. The pairing of defenders like Parvesh Bhainswal and Shubham Shinde will show how India's back line holds under turnover pressure. The women's story is different, and here I think the biggest blind spot lies. Indian women's kabaddi has four Asian Games golds — 2026, 2026, 2026 and 2026 — yet to this day there is no franchise league. The men have Pro Kabaddi League, a business worth crores; the women do not have that platform. Under Nidhi Sharma, this team will face Malaysia, Singapore, Uganda and Nigeria. India's toughest Group A match is actually the opener against Malaysia, because for a host team the first game always carries pressure — crowd, cameras and the mental weight of 'the start must be good.' Ritu will anchor the defensive balance as vice-captain, and the raiding depth of Muskan Sharma and Riya Kumari will signal whether this team has the legs to reach the final. The biggest strategic question of this tournament is this: is a 23-team, 13-nation event a real step toward globalising kabaddi, or a diplomatic page in Ahmedabad's preparation for the 2030 Commonwealth Games? Both can be true at once, but the difference lies in how many of these 13 nations build stronger domestic structures after this championship. If teams like Canada, Australia, Scotland and England have come only to participate, this will remain an exhibition. But if sides like Kenya and Uganda push India hard, it will prove kabaddi's future is not confined to the subcontinent. In my experience, kabaddi's greatest strength is its plain arithmetic — one raid, one tackle, one point. But the people behind that arithmetic often stay outside the camera. What I saw on a mud court outside Warangal tells me real kabaddi does not live in a scoreboard; it lives in the moment a raider holds his breath and moves toward the corner on a do-or-die raid. Ahmedabad will have those moments too. What matters most in this sixty-minute sport is continuity. India's biggest challenge is not the opponent but maintaining its own rhythm — six group matches, then a semifinal, then a final. Six matches in nine days bring physical and mental fatigue. Under Surjeet Singh's captaincy it will be interesting to see how rotation works and whether young players get a chance. For the women's team the four-match group schedule is comparatively light, but they must settle their defensive strategy before the semifinal. When the final is played on the evening of October 31, the question will not be who scored how many points. It will be whether this first Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship created a lasting place for kabaddi beyond India, or whether it remained merely a rehearsal for 2030. The answer will not be in the scorebook; it will be found on the domestic grounds of those 13 nations — whether they stay empty after this tournament or not.