Having taken over the prime beach volleyball venue in Zone D of Fengxiang Beach, kabaddi has enjoyed big and noisy crowds on the first two days of the competition, according to the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
Either the novelty value of the South Asian village game is capturing the imagination of the locals, or the exotic jungle beat of the "kabbadi-kabaddi-kabaddi" signature song is luring the curious to take a closer look, OCA's news letter stated.
The spectators enjoy, laugh and smile at some of the more desperate attempts of the lone attacker to elude the posse of defenders and there is the occasional collective wince as an attacker is felled with a rugby-style big hit and then battered into the sand by the whole team.
"I thought it would be very difficult to understand because I did not know the rules, but after watching it for a few minutes and listening to the explanations and the commentary, I found it very interesting," the news letter quoted a Chinese spectator as saying.
"I even checked it out on line on my cellphone, and discovered it has a 4,000-year history and is from India. It is nice that we can see this in China," she added.
Another spectator likened kabaddi to China's traditional game of 'Eagle grabs chicken' that involves one attacker, the eagle, trying to tag the chickens, which are protected by the mother hen.
"We play this in childhood and I think kabaddi reminds many people of this game. The spectators are very glad to see this game here. It is a new thing, a game more than a competition," she said. (More)
