Kho-kho

kho-kho, traditional Indian sport, a form of tag, that is one of the oldest forms of outdoor sport, dating back to prehistoric India.

The kho-kho playing field—which can be placed on any suitable indoor or outdoor surface—is a rectangle 29 metres (32 yards) long and 16 metres (17 yards) wide with a vertical wooden post at either end of the field. Each kho-kho team consists of 12 players, but during a contest only 9 players from each team take the field. A match consists of two innings. In an innings, each team gets seven minutes for chasing and seven for defending. Eight members of the chasing team sit in eight squares in the central lane of the field, alternating in the direction they face. The ninth member is the active chaser (sometimes referred to as the attacker), who begins his pursuit at either of the posts. The active chaser “knocks out” an opponent by touching that person with the palm of the hand. The defenders (also called runners) try to play out the seven minutes, avoiding being touched by the chaser while not moving out of the field’s boundaries. Runners enter the chase area (known as the rectangle) in batches of three. As the third runner leaves, the next batch of three must enter the rectangle. Runners are declared “out” when either they are touched by the active chaser, they drift out of the rectangle, or they enter the rectangle late. The active chaser can get any chasing-team member, sitting crouched in one of the squares in the centre of the field, to take over and continue the chase by tapping him on the back with the palm and saying “kho” loudly. The chase is built up through a series of “khos” as the chasers continue their pursuit in a relay manner.

The first kho-kho tournaments were organized in 1914, and the first national championship was held in 1959 at Vijayawada under the auspices of the Kho-kho Federation of India (KKFI), which was formed in 1955. Ever since, the KKFI has made great efforts to popularize the game, which is now played across India at various levels, from schools to the national team. Kho-kho was included as a demonstration sport at the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games and at the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1987. It was during the SAF Games that the Asian Kho-kho Federation was formed, which later helped popularize kho-kho in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.