The 2025 Kabaddi World Cup was the second edition of the Kabaddi World Cup held under the authority of World Kabaddi. 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 (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 Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF), or the Asian Games.
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, Malaysia in 2019. A 2020 edition of the tournament was scheduled, but then was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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, as well as its significant South Asian community. The event was supported by the West Midlands Combined Authority. The drawing of groups was held on 7 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: Venue City Dates WV Active Aldersley Wolverhampton CBS Arena Coventry 19 March 2025 Nechells Wellbeing Centre Birmingham 20 March 2025 Walsall Campus Sports Centre Walsall 21 March 2025
Men's group stage Group A Team 3 3 0 0 6 249 81168 3 2 0 1 4 174 12648 3 1 0 2 2 145 173-28 3 0 0 3 0 87 275-188 advanced to the knockout stage Source:
Group B Team 4 3 1 0 7 303 154149 4 3 1 0 7 286 168118 4 2 0 2 4 229 246-17 4 1 0 3 2 151 261-110 4 0 0 4 0 137 277-140 advanced to the knockout stage Source:
Men's knockout stage Source:
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
3rd place match
Final
Women's group stage Group D Team 2 2 0 0 4 193 33160 2 1 0 1 2 76 133-57 2 0 0 2 0 59 162-103 advanced to the knockout stage Source:
Group E Team 2 2 0 0 4 130 5476 2 1 0 1 2 112 6547 2 0 0 2 0 35 158-123 advanced to the knockout stage Source:
Women's knockout stage Source:
Semi-finals
3rd place match
Final
Broadcasting Source: Country Broadcaster Rights distribution partner Dice sports Worldwide talkSPORTKabaddi on YouTubeOlympic Channel (semi-final onwards) Fiji Fijian Broadcasting Corporation India DD Sports Waves India Indonesia TVRI Mauritius Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Rupavahini CorporationThePapare 1 (SD & HD) Tanzania Azam TV United Kingdom BBC iPlayer United Kingdom and Europe Zee Punjabi USA and Canada Willow TV
References