Part rugby, part wrestling: The booming Indian sport heading for Melbourne debut

Delhi: A showcase of one of India’s most popular sports will be brought to Melbourne, reviving an unrealised promise of the cancelled Victoria Commonwealth Games as Premier Jacinta Allan seeks to grow the state’s cultural and sporting ties.

The move to stage a kabaddi fixture comes as the government’s refreshed India Strategy, released on Tuesday, signals an ambition to develop connections to the country through sport, film and television, and booming markets such as beauty and wellness.

Melbourne will host a kabaddi match.Credit: Getty Images

Allan announced in Delhi on Tuesday that the government would partner with the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) of India to bring an exhibition match to Melbourne within 18 months.

Kabaddi is a contact sport that has been described as a mix of rugby, wrestling and tag. Two teams are positioned on opposite halves of a court and players take turns crossing to the other side, tagging as many opponents as possible, and repeating “kabaddi, kabaddi” before returning to their team’s zone.

The sport was to be showcased at a match at Victoria’s 2026 Commonwealth Games before the event was cancelled. Labor had promised the match before the 2022 election as part of its pitch to the state’s 258,000 Indian-born residents.

The PKL launched in 2014 and is now followed by 365 million people, with the last season broadcast to as many as 200 million homes.

The contact sport has a fast-growing fan base and was supposed to feature in the now-cancelled Commonwealth Games.Credit: Getty Images

“As the sporting capital of Australia, we’re proud to be partnering with the Pro Kabaddi League to explore bringing a PKL showcase in Melbourne, with the sport attracting one of the fastest-growing fan bases around the globe,” Allan said on Tuesday.

She made the announcement alongside PKL commissioner Anupam Goswami at the Tyagaraj Sports Complex in Delhi. The Age is travelling with the premier this week as she meets Indian and Australian delegates and visits holy sites.

On Tuesday, Allan also launched an update to the state’s India Strategy, identifying areas where Victoria wants to strengthen, grow and explore its connections to the world’s most populous nation.

It outlines that almost 40 per cent of Australia’s Indian diaspora lives in Victoria, with communities growing not only in Melbourne’s west and south-east, but also in Bendigo and Geelong.

Since the strategy was last updated in 2018, Victorian merchandise exports to India have grown by 51 per cent and the number of direct flights from India to Australia has quadrupled to 13 a week, including a 20 per cent increase in business arrivals.

“The data tells us … around 60 Indians will move to Victoria today,” Allan said. “Perhaps that number will be 61 tomorrow, and so on into the future.

“In Victoria, we’re building for that future. There’s a big three that we are focused on: transport, homes and renewable energy.”

Allan said India shared these interests and challenges.

Other areas for growth identified in the strategy include environmental sustainability, the beauty industry, and building stronger ties between Victoria’s film industry and India’s world-famous Bollywood.

“India is emerging as one of the largest markets in the world for beauty, wellness and personal care products, driven by increasing urbanisation, growing disposable incomes, participation of women in the workforce, and growth in e-commerce and social media marketing,” the strategy says.

On Tuesday, Allan’s delegation toured Laxminarayan Temple, also known as Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi on the condition there would be no discrimination in who was allowed to use it.

Premier Jacinta Allan with Balaji Kumar, Chief Human Resource Officer at Sonata Software.Credit: Kieran Rooney

Before making the kabaddi announcement, the premier toured the site of HCL Tech, a multinational company assisting Victoria’s Department of Transport and Planning with automating how concessions are automatically included in public transport fares.

She also toured the University of Melbourne’s new global outpost in Connaught Place – one of Delhi’s biggest financial centres and a symbol of the massive economic growth that has defined modern India – where it will demonstrate the university’s courses and hold special events.

The India Strategy will also seek to strengthen Victoria’s existing connections with India’s education, food, tourism and technology industries.

On Tuesday, global tech company Sonata Software announced it would set up a centre of excellence in Melbourne with support from the government, creating 100 jobs and providing training to young talent.

The company specialises in helping businesses modernise to use more digital technology. It will focus on retail and manufacturing in Australia, as more local companies look for ways to use artificial intelligence and data.

On Monday, Allan spoke to Delhi local Sunny Sharma, who wanted to improve his English.Credit: Kieran Rooney

Sonata’s chief human resource officer, Balaji Kumar, said the company had made its decision because of the training students were receiving in Victoria.

“The quality of talent that we have encountered in Victoria and in Melbourne [have] made a huge difference to us as a company,” he said.

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