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The Kabaddi World Cup 2025 begins today (March 17). The matches will be spread across four cities in the United Kingdom including Birmingham, Coventry and Walsall. Wolverhampton is slated as the venue for the opening games as well as the semifinals and final.
Organized by World Kabaddi, this is the first Kabaddi World Cup that will be held outside Asia. The previous edition was hosted by Malaysia in 2019. Both the men's as well as the women's editions will run simultaneously from March 17 to March 23. India enters both competitions as the defending champions.
The men's tournament will feature ten teams, while six teams will compete in the women's event. Here is how the groups for the league stage matches of both competitions stack up:
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Men's Kabaddi World Cup 2025
Group A: England, Poland, USA, Hungary, Germany.
Group B: India, Italy, Scotland, Wales, Hong Kong China.
The top four teams from each group will make it to the quartefinals.
Women's Kabaddi World Cup 2025
Group D: India, Poland, Wales
Group E: England, Hungary, Hong Kong China
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals.
Initially, a total of 16 nations had been slated to feature in the competition. However, the number dropped down to ten owing to "visa and other external challenges", according to the official website.
Where to watch Kabbadi World Cup 2025? Here are the live streaming details
The Kabaddi World Cup 2025 can be watched live around the world on the following platforms — BBC iPlayer, the Olympic Channel, DD Sports and Willow TV.
In India, the matches will be broadcast by DD Sports. From the semifinals onwards, the streaming will also be available on Olympics.com.
The men's event kicks off with hosts England taking on Hungary while the women's competition will see Poland and Wales lock horns in the opening fixture.
India's men's team will play its first match against Italy today at 5:30 PM IST (12:00 PM GMT) while the women's team begins their campaign against Wales at 5:30 PM IST (12:00 PM GMT) on Tuesday.
