If you search for the Kabaddi World Cup and come away confused, that is a reasonable response to the actual situation. There is no single competition by that name. Several different organisations run international kabaddi tournaments called the Kabaddi World Cup, and they are separate events with separate histories and separate winners.
In 2025 alone, two different tournaments called the Kabaddi World Cup were staged — one in England and one in Bangladesh. India won titles at both. This page sets out which is which, so you can tell what a result actually refers to.
The competitions that share the name
| Organising body | What it runs |
|---|---|
| International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) | A Kabaddi World Cup in standard (indoor) kabaddi |
| World Kabaddi | A separate Kabaddi World Cup, also in standard kabaddi |
| Various bodies | A Kabaddi World Cup in circle style, also called Punjabi kabaddi |
These are not stages of one competition or regional qualifiers feeding a final. They are distinct tournaments with the same name, run by different organisations. A claim that a team “won the Kabaddi World Cup” is incomplete until you know which one.
We are describing the factual position here, not taking a view on it. Which body should be regarded as the sport’s principal authority is not something we are in a position to adjudicate, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
The World Kabaddi tournament in England, 2025
This was the edition most widely covered in Indian media during 2025, and it was a genuine first for the sport.
| Detail | |
|---|---|
| Sanctioned by | World Kabaddi |
| Dates | 17–23 March 2025 |
| Venues | Birmingham, Coventry, Walsall and Wolverhampton, England |
| Significance | The first Kabaddi World Cup held outside Asia |
| Men’s champions | India — beat England 44–41 in the final at Wolverhampton |
| Women’s champions | India — beat England in the final |
India won both titles, and both finals were against the hosts. The men’s final finishing 44–41 makes it a genuinely close match by kabaddi standards, decided in the closing raids rather than settled early.
Staging the tournament across the West Midlands is not arbitrary. The region has a large British Asian population with long-established kabaddi participation, and it is the most realistic place in Britain to stage the sport in front of a crowd that knows it.
The IKF tournament
The International Kabaddi Federation’s Kabaddi World Cup has a longer recorded history, and its editions have been held less frequently.
| Edition | Year | Host | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men | 2004 | Mumbai | India (beat Iran) |
| Men | 2007 | Panvel | India (beat Iran) |
| Men | 2016 | Ahmedabad | India (beat Iran) |
| Women | 2012 | Patna | India |
| Women | 2025 | Dhaka | India (beat Chinese Taipei 35–28) |
India have won all three men’s editions, beating Iran in every final, and both women’s editions listed. Iran appearing as runners-up in all three men’s finals establishes them clearly as the second force in the international game.
The 2025 women’s edition in Dhaka is the one that most often gets confused with the England tournament, since both took place in 2025 and both were called the Kabaddi World Cup. They were different competitions run by different bodies.
So who has won the Kabaddi World Cup?
The honest answer requires the qualifier.
- IKF men’s Kabaddi World Cup — India, three times (2004, 2007, 2016), beating Iran in each final.
- IKF women’s Kabaddi World Cup — India, in 2012 and 2025.
- World Kabaddi’s 2025 tournament in England — India, in both the men’s and women’s events.
- Circle style Kabaddi World Cup — a separate competition again, organised by various bodies.
- Across all of them, India’s dominance is the consistent feature.
India winning essentially everything is the one thing that is not in dispute regardless of which competition you mean. What varies is the count, and any specific number of titles is meaningless without naming the tournament it refers to.
Future editions
We will state only what has been reported and flag the rest, because this is an area where confident-sounding schedules circulate without foundation.
- A resumption of the IKF men’s competition was announced in January 2025.
- A corresponding women’s resumption was indicated for 2026.
- The stated intention is for men’s and women’s events to alternate years thereafter.
- Specific dates, hosts and formats for future editions are not confirmed in what we could verify.
- World Kabaddi’s next edition is a separate matter entirely, on its own schedule.
If you see a confidently stated date for the next Kabaddi World Cup, check which body is supposed to be running it before believing it. Given that at least three organisations use the name, a scheduling claim without an organiser attached is not usable information.
Standard kabaddi and circle style are different sports
The format distinction matters as much as the organisational one, because the two versions are genuinely different to watch.
| Standard (indoor) kabaddi | Circle style (Punjabi) | |
|---|---|---|
| Playing area | A rectangular court | A circular field |
| Where it is played | The international and league standard | Strong in Punjab and the diaspora |
| Structure | Raids and tackles with a defined court and lobbies | Different rules around the raid and hold |
| What you will see on TV | Pro Kabaddi and most international events | Its own separate circuit and tournaments |
The Pro Kabaddi League, which is the version most Indian viewers follow week to week, uses standard indoor kabaddi. Our Pro Kabaddi League season 13 guide covers that competition. Circle style has its own following and its own tournaments, including its own events called World Cups.
How the game itself works
Briefly, for anyone arriving without the basics.
- A raider enters the opposition half attempting to touch defenders and return.
- The raider must do this in a single breath, traditionally marked by the cant — a continuous chant.
- Touching a defender and returning safely scores a point per defender touched.
- The defenders attempt to tackle and hold the raider until the raid fails.
- Players touched or tackled are out and revive as points are scored.
- Clearing all opponents produces a bonus, and the sides swap halves at half time.
The appeal is that every single play is a self-contained contest with a clear outcome in a few seconds — one attacker against a defensive unit, resolved immediately. It is one of the most legible sports on television for that reason, which is a large part of why the Pro Kabaddi League found an audience so quickly.
Following kabaddi from India
- Pro Kabaddi League is the domestic season and plays at Indian evening times.
- IKF events have generally been staged in Asia, so timings have been convenient.
- World Kabaddi’s 2025 tournament in England ran on UK time — IST 4.5 to 5.5 hours ahead depending on the date.
- Check which competition a fixture belongs to before assuming a schedule.
- Treat unsourced schedules with caution, given how many bodies use the same name.
In short
There is no single Kabaddi World Cup. The International Kabaddi Federation, World Kabaddi and various circle-style bodies all run tournaments under that name, and they are separate competitions.
India won the World Kabaddi tournament in England in March 2025, taking both men’s and women’s titles — the first Kabaddi World Cup held outside Asia, with the men’s final finishing 44–41 against the hosts at Wolverhampton. India have also won all three IKF men’s editions (2004, 2007, 2016, beating Iran each time) and the IKF women’s editions in 2012 and 2025, the latter in Dhaka against Chinese Taipei. Whichever competition you mean, India have won it — but the title count depends entirely on which one. See our kabaddi page for more.
Why kabaddi ended up with competing tournaments
It is a reasonable question, and the general answer is not specific to kabaddi. Sports that grow from traditional and regional roots frequently end up with more than one body claiming to govern them, particularly where the sport crosses national and diaspora communities with their own long-established structures.
Kabaddi has several features that make this more likely than most: it is played in materially different formats, it has deep regional variants with their own histories, and its international growth has been recent and rapid relative to how long it has been played. Where a sport professionalises quickly, organisational structures tend to lag behind the competitions themselves.
We are describing why this pattern occurs, not attributing responsibility. The practical position for a viewer is simply that the name of a tournament does not uniquely identify it, and results need the organiser attached to mean anything.
What this means when you read a kabaddi result
- Find the organising body before accepting any claim about a World Cup title.
- Check the year and the host — 2025 alone had tournaments in England and Bangladesh.
- Check whether it is men’s or women’s, since the editions do not run in parallel.
- Check the format — standard indoor or circle style are different sports in practice.
- Be sceptical of aggregated title counts. Numbers that sum across different competitions are not meaningful.
- Treat undated schedule claims as unusable, particularly for future editions.
The fifth point is where most published confusion originates. A page claiming a country has won some total number of Kabaddi World Cups has usually added together results from separate competitions run by different organisations, which produces a figure that does not correspond to anything.
India’s dominance, and Iran’s position
Across the tournaments we could verify, two patterns hold consistently.
India have won every edition listed — the IKF men’s tournaments in 2004, 2007 and 2016, the IKF women’s tournaments in 2012 and 2025, and both titles at World Kabaddi’s 2025 tournament in England. That is a level of dominance unusual in any international sport.
Iran are consistently the closest challengers in the IKF men’s competition, having reached and lost all three finals. A single nation finishing second in every edition of a tournament is itself a notable record, and it establishes Iran as the clear second force rather than one of an interchangeable group.
England reaching both finals as hosts in 2025 is a separate point worth noting, and reflects the strength of kabaddi in British Asian communities rather than a broad English participation base.
Kabaddi beyond the World Cups
The World Cup confusion is easier to navigate once you know that it is not the only international stage, and some of the others are considerably less ambiguous.
- The Asian Games have included kabaddi and are run by a single recognised body, so results there carry no naming ambiguity.
- The Asian Kabaddi Championship is a continental competition in its own right.
- The Pro Kabaddi League is the domestic franchise competition and by far the most watched kabaddi in India week to week.
- Domestic national championships feed the talent pipeline into both the league and the national side.
- Circle-style tournaments run on a separate circuit with their own events and their own following.
For most Indian viewers the practical hierarchy is simple: the Pro Kabaddi League is the season you follow, continental and multi-sport events are where the national side plays with unambiguous status, and the various World Cups need the organising body checked before a result means anything.
Our kabaddi markets guide explains how the sport is followed match to match, and our Pro Kabaddi League season 13 guide covers the domestic competition.
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