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| India-Pakistan |
| US Marines take to kabaddi |
| 2006-11-01 |
| After a joint anti-terrorism exercise with the Indian Army at the Commando Training Centre in Belgaum, US soldiers will take back not just experience of rigorous commando training, but also a quintessentially Indian sport -- kabaddi. Shatrujeet 2006, the counter-terrorism exercise in which a company of the Punjab Regiment's 21st Battalion and 2/4 Marine company of US Army are participating, started at Belgaum in northern Karnataka on October 25 and will end on November 3. The aim of the exercise, the commanding officer of 21 Punjab Colonel Vijay Nair, said, is "to enhance joint operability of the two armies". But in the process, while training for operations like cordon-and-search or storming a terrorist hideout, the US Marines picked up kabaddi and even rudimentary cricket. Kabaddi fascinated them, one of the American platoon commanders, Lt Lee, told reporters in Belgaum. "My troops are playing kabaddi in barracks too. They are impressed with the game and the agility of the Indian troops," said Lt Lee. The only hitch -- as an Indian officer put it tongue-in-cheek -- is that the Americans pronounce kabbadi as "cup of tea". The current exercise, in which around 160 troops of each country are involved, is a follow-up to Shatrujeet 05 held at Camp Pendleton in the US last year. |
| Posted by:john |
| #3 John- I do not envy the Inidan team - I watched a USMC team take on an RAF team during what was probably the bloodiest rugby match ever played in North America, and the Marines won. Of course, what the Marines call 'aggressive play', the rest of the world calls 'assault with intent'. :) Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-11-01 16:19 |
| #2 Great to see the US-Indian cooperation. OT : Looks like a manly sport. Still, in my fevered mind, half naked studs, in white socks and briefs brimming with sweat, wrestling each other while saying crazy things in tongues brings barely repressed homo-erotic fantaisies. Stop messing with my mind! I mean, if they wear wondercups, I'm not sure I could support all that gayness... |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-11-01 16:10 |
| #1 Two teams of seven, mostly naked players (consisting of socks and boxer shorts, sometimes briefs) occupy opposite halves of a field of 12.5m x 10m (roughly half the size of a basketball court). Each team has five additional players that are held in reserve. The game is organized into two 20-minute halves, with a five-minute half-time break during which the teams switch sides. The teams take turns sending a "raider" across to the opposite team's half, where the goal is to tag or wrestle ("capture") members of the opposite team before returning to the home half. Tagged members are "out" and are sent off the field. The raider must not take a breath during the raid, and must prove it by constantly chanting (called 'cant' or 'dak') during the raid. The chant-word is kabaddi in India and Pakistan, hađuđu in Bangladesh, do-do in Nepal, guddu in Sri Lanka, chado-guddo in Malaysia, Zoo in Iran, and techib in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the defenders must form a chain, for example by linking hands; if the chain is broken, a member of the defending team is sent off. The goal of the defenders is to stop the raider from returning to the home side before taking a breath. If the raider takes a breath before returning to the home side, the raider is out and is sent off the field. A player can also get "out" by going over a boundary line during the course of the play or if any part of the player's body touches the ground outside the boundary, except during a struggle with an opposing team member. Each time a player is out the opposing team earns a point. A team scores a bonus of two points, called a lona, if the entire opposing team is declared out. At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins. Matches are staged on the basis of age and weight. Seven officials supervise a match: one referee, two umpires, two linesmen, a timekeeper and a scorer. |
| Posted by: john 2006-11-01 15:50 |