Battle Tag: Kabaddi set to breach new frontiers in the USA

The chants of "kabaddi, kabaddi" which have captured India and the South Asian subcontinent will now echo across the United States, with the introduction of perhaps the next big thing in kabaddi - Battle Tag.

Founded by Kevin Varghese and Vishal Singh, the rebranded version of kabaddi will feature 40 minutes of intense kabaddi action. The twist comes if the match is tied. A freestyle wrestling bout will follow to determine the winning team.

Sportskeeda caught up with co-founder Vishal Singh, where he opened up on all that goes behind starting a league from scratch and the ambitions for the tournament.

Hailing from Dhanbad, where kabaddi was a massive part of his life, Vishal has adored the sport and grew up playing it. He also noticed that the sport was one of the biggest crowd-pullers after cricket during his university days.

In the build-up to Battle Tag, Vishal believes that Major League Cricket has provided a roadmap for other leagues on how to integrate into the US markets.

"Similarly, even we want to host invitational matches, have a mini-tournament to make the people aware of what is coming up and what to expect. After that, we will reach a league that we can sustain. While coming onboard, partners and sponsors will be looking at the longetivity of the league," Vishal Singh said.

The league, which is set to be launched in September 2025, is still in its developmental phase, and, according to Vishal, there are many milestones to be hit before the league really comes into being.

"Firstly, we want to host a Battle Tag Expo, where the investors, potential partners and potential streaming right partners will be present. There will be exhibition matches where they will get to see the difference between viewing it on a screen versus in real life," he added.

Another interesting, and potentially mindblowing, plan is to have an invitational tournament, which could feature UFC, MMA, WWE players coming together and battling it out on the kabaddi mat.

"Just imagine, UFC players, MMA players, WWE players. They will be giving us footprint, they will be giving us their loyal subscribers. This will be a litmus test to see if people will attend the league," said Vishal.

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Rebranding kabaddi: The evolution of rules and appealing to the US markets

Taking an Indian sport to the United States is indeed a challenging task and the sport's name, which was proving to be a tongue-twister for the locals, needed to be changed.

"We can say kabaddi and the South Asian demographic will definitely call it kabaddi but in the US market, it's quite a tongue-twister for them. Chase, Battle Chase, and so on were thought of first before we arrived at Battle Tag. It is quite interesting to hear the same and is very inquisitive. I hope this becomes synonymous with kabaddi in a few years," Vishal hopes.

After considering many tiebreaker systems, Kevin and Vishal settled on a wrestling bout to add a different dimension and to evolve the sport.

"This could go down as a bowl out which got changed to a super over, even we might tweak this rule in the future," Vishal divulged.

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Nurturing young talent: Establishing a pipeline for local players to emerge as superstars

There are also plans to host a collegiate tournament to identify and lock in on young talent who could become potential superstars in the sport. Tie-ups with schools and colleges could be seen, where students will be introduced to the sport and a pipeline would be created for their talent to be nurtured.

Battle Tag will feature players of different cultures and nationalities. While initially there is no cap on the international players planned, there could be a limit on the international players for a franchise, with their pipeline for local talent bound to produce results soon.

"Many players are approaching us. Most of them are from India. Many Pakistanis too. There are a couple of interesting emails from Iranians too. We want to get American people involved too. There won't be a cap on international players right now, but we might see that in the future," Vishal revealed.

Vishal is of the opinion that each player has his own flair, which could be a selling point for the league and could draw in fans. He reminisced about the time when he fell in love with the sport and what drew him to it.

"What drew me to it was Jasvir Singh's scorpion kick in PKL. Similarly, each player will bring his own flair here too. One of the biggest players is Pardeep Narwal. He's at the top because he has some personal flair too. It is the same forty minutes for everyone and it is up to the players to bring out their own flair," Vishal believes.

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Battle Tag: Venues, League System & Other Details

The co-founders have opted for a franchise model to begin with but certainly do have plans for expanding it to a club model, where there could be matches around the year.

The players that register for the league will be picked by teams via either an auction or a draft system. While the major leagues in India like the Indian Premier League and Pro Kabaddi League have an auction system in place, others like the Ultimate Table Tennis feature a draft system.

"We will have player auctions or a draft. We will also be taking the owners' opinions into consideration too," Vishal revealed.

The organisers have four venues in mind so far, all bustling cities with a large representation of South Asians, which could potentially sell out stadiums. They are also looking at four more venues but will decide on a caravan format at a later stage.

"Las Vegas, Texas, New York and Florida are the four cities we have zeroed in on so far. We will reveal the four other venues later. We are looking at a caravan format. But again, it will depend on a lot of factors, including the team owners," he added.

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Kabaddi's Olympic dream, fastracked

Battle Tag has set a target of kabaddi's inclusion in the Olympics by 2032 Brisbane. Vishal Singh feels that the timeframe is very realistic and compared it to some other sports, which have exploded in the past few years.

"I think the timeframe is very realistic. Many sports have picked up in 5-6 years. In 2018, esports was just coming up and when it came in the market in 2021 or so and it is in the Olympics. This was possible because they got good backing and their revenue model was great. People wanted to watch it as well. If I keep a timeline of 8 years, it is achievable," Vishal said.

To make this dream possible, Vishal spoke about collaborations with entities like Reliance, which could help fasttrack this dream, and perhaps even have kabaddi as part of the exhibition sports in LA 2028.

"For example, Nita Ambani is an IOC member. If we can work with Reliance and work towards this Olympic dream, we can achieve this till 2032. The sport can entice the whole world with its charm and aggression. Olympics can pick this up and if all goes well, we can get this to be a part of the exhibition sports at least," he added.

There are certainly big dreams for Battle Tag and if all goes well, it could certainly carve a niche for itself in the US combat sports industry.