Bhubaneswar: With the success of Kho Kho World Cup 2025 at Delhi, the Indigenous sports of the country got a massive boost up. The highest number of 40 men’s and 40 women’s teams participated in the five-day long 57th Senior National Kho Kho Championship held at Puri from 31st March to 4th April 2025. Which speaks about the popularity of the Kho Kho sports inside India.
“After the amendment in rules and technical changes like Mitti to Mat, Dream Run, Skydiving, interdiction of Wazir, Decision Review System (DRS) and seven-a-side format helped kho kho regain its international presence. The first edition of Kho Kho World Cup witnessed the participation of 23 countries from six continents, featuring 20 men's and 19 women's teams”, said Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI) president Sudhansu Mittal.
The introduction of the Ultimate Kho Kho league in the year 2022, attracted the global viewers towards the sport. Admitting the growth of the viewers, Mittal said the league reached a massive audience of 164 million, emerging amongst the top-3 non-cricket leagues in our country. This year onwards overseas players will get the opportunities to play in the Kho Kho league. Each franchise will add four to five overseas players in their team”.
Talking about the future international kho kho events, Mittal expressed that KKFI made a plan to move step by step, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and then Olympic Games. This year KKFI will host the Commonwealth Kho Kho Championship at Delhi. Already 55 different national federations are functioning under the International Kho Kho Federation of India (IKKF). In the year 1936 the Kho Kho was played in the Olympic Games as a demonstration sport. I am hopeful Kho Kho will be an official event in the 2032 Olympic Games at Brisbane”.
After sponsoring the Indian Hockey team, Women’s Rugby team, the Odisha Government also sponsored the national Kho Kho team for the next three years from January 2025 till December 2027.
Mittal thanked the Odisha Government for backing the national team. He also added “the international standard kho kho infrastructure in the High-Performance Centre at Puri is an example for others. Earlier Kho Kho was dominated by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh players, by using these facilities the Odisha players nowadays dominate the national circuit”.
