Comment: ‘Kabaddi kabaddi kabaddi’ is go go go in the West Midlands

City of Wolverhampton cabinet member for resident services, councillor Bhupinder Gakhal, looks ahead to a historic Kabaddi World Cup, which takes place in Wolverhampton and across the West Midlands, starting on Monday (17).

The city of Wolverhampton has many claims to fame – it’s home to the world’s oldest original digital computer, it was instrumental in forming the tournament now known as football’s Champions League, and it was the first place in the UK to pioneer automated traffic signals.

On Monday, the green light will shine brightly for the first Kabaddi World Cup outside Asia to commence – with Wolverhampton, plus Birmingham, Coventry and Walsall, playing host to seven days of action and 48 thrilling men’s and women’s matches.

This will be a proud, historic week for my city. From hosting the opening ceremony on Monday to the semi-finals and finals the following weekend at Wolverhampton’s Aldersley Stadium, we can’t wait to show the world of kabaddi what makes the West Midlands so special.

This event is the latest chapter in an exciting sporting story for Wolverhampton and the wider West Midlands. The most popular Commonwealth Games ever to be hosted in the UK – Birmingham 2022 – gave the West Midlands its time to shine on the international stage.

Since then, the region has welcomed sporting tournaments as varied as European judo, the International Blind Sport Federation World Games, and FISE Xperience, an action sports showpiece in the city centre of Wolverhampton, with darts, athletics, cricket and many more events still to come.

Like all of these successful championships, the Kabaddi World Cup will be more than just a sporting event – it will be a celebration of the West Midlands’ cultural diversity, passionate audiences, and inclusive nature.

Our region and South Asia – in particular, India – has proudly maintained a strong relationship in recent years, and I am thrilled that the Kabaddi World Cup will allow us to celebrate the vibrant South Asian communities, which are such a vital part of the West Midlands.

We have a ‘living bridge’ of 200,000 ethnic Indians living and working in the West Midlands, the highest proportion in the UK.

Ranking second after London in attracting the highest proportion (13 per cent) of foreign direct investment from India between 2011 and 2022, and with the third-largest number of Indian students studying in the UK, it is clear that we in the West Midlands have a fantastic bond with our Indian friends. It is something I hope continues for many years.

The aforementioned Commonwealth Games gave us the opportunity to work closely with Indian media to profile the West Midlands’ tourism and investment offer and to run international cultural marketing campaigns to encourage Indian residents to come and visit the region.

The region already attracts the second-largest number of Indian tourists per year outside of London, and this activity saw more than 80 per cent of Indian respondents say they felt positive about the West Midlands as a visitor destination – higher than all other countries surveyed.

Hosting the Kabaddi World Cup gives us a unique and valuable opportunity to further grow the sport in the West Midlands, the UK, and around the globe, with more than 50 countries across five continents currently playing it.

I hope that – among the crowds filling the arenas in the West Midlands over the week of the tournament and the hundreds of millions more watching on television – there is a generation of new, young fans, both boys and girls, who are intrigued and inspired to have a go themselves.

As I’m sure many readers will be well aware, the beauty of kabaddi – the ‘game of the masses’ played by people of all faiths, backgrounds, and nationalities – is its simplicity and accessibility. I am determined that, through this tournament, we create opportunities for communities to connect and embrace physical activity and introduce kabaddi into more schools, colleges, and universities across the city and wider region.

Hold your breath – Wolverhampton and the West Midlands is set to put on a fantastic, energetic show.

For more information and to buy tickets to the Kabaddi World Cup (17-23 March), visit kabaddiworldcup2025.com.