All you need to know about Kho Kho- The Game of Chase

I am on the mission to explore the unknown sports. This is a series of articles which would give information about various ancient games not known to the world.

• First i wrote about the game of Kabaddi and its popularity.
• Second in the series was Kalari and its significance for modern age martial arts.

Today, my topic is Kho Kho - another ancient game which is gaining popularity.
Kho Kho is a game of tag. Its meant for the youths who are skilled runners. There are two types of players in this game

1. Defenders and
2. Chasers.

They both must have a sufficient amount of reflex in the body because it allows them to change the direction to keep the game active in a real way. Chasers are the opponents of defender, whose aim is to touch the defender.

Kho Kho started in India way back and was played by the people of Maharashtra. It is also called "Game of Chase". There are few players sitting on ground and one player is chasing the opponent on ground. To get hold of the opponent they ask nearest sitting player by calling KHO.

History
You can find its roots in Mahabharata on the 13th day of the war, the Kaurava Guru Dronacharya planned the sole tactics ‘Chakravyuh’, a special military defensive plan broke by Abhimanyu. Unfortunately, he died as he had to fight alone against 7 warriors and he was badly injured.
His style of fighting reflected the concept of ring play – a defensive tactic in Kho Kho.

Rule Book
Kho kho rules were framed to make it an international game. Pakistan, Bangladesh participate in International tournaments along with India.
Here are the most important rules of Kho Kho.

• Each team will have 12 players but only 9 of them can compete on the pitch.
• A standard match encompasses two innings.
• Each inning will have 9 minutes which includes chasing and running.
• The chasing team sits or kneels in the middle of the court in a row. Each player sitting next to each other will see on the opposite sides (in alternative direction).
• The chasers should end in the quickest time possible.
• The chaser will touch the nearest possible player on his/her back and say ‘Kho’ to give him a chance to chase.

The team that takes the shortest amount of time to touch the player chased, is adjudged as the winner.
You can see the video illustration of how this game is played.

Area of Play
The game is played on the open ground and between two poles. The playground of Kho Kho is 29 metres long and 16 metres wide. At each end there is a pole of 120 centimeters.

The reason i am narrating and elaborating about this game is because its a popular game in South Asia and is likely to be walking the path of Pro Kabaddi League. Its very likely that this game would be franchised out soon.

Greatest Kho Kho Players
Sarita Kale, is considered as the Best Kho Kho woman player who won the various awards of Indian government whereas Kedar Joshi is considered as the best male kho kho player. Some other players include Achala Deore and Sudhir Parab who are some of the best defenders in the game of kho kho.