Kho Kho is a playground game that is believed to be originated from the Indian subcontinent. The game involves two or more players running and chasing one another in order to touch or tag them usually with their hands. In terms of popularity, the sport is widely embraced in South Asia and is also played in the UK and South Africa.
The Asian Kho Kho Federation was constituted in the year 1987 during the 3rd SAF Games in Kolkata with member countries India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, and the Maldives. India was the first location to hold the first Asian Championship in Kolkata in 1996 whereas, the second championship was convened at Dhaka in Bangladesh. The participating nations of the championship were India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Japan, Thailand and Bangladesh.
The prime motive of the team is to send all the players of the opponent's team out of the ground by chasing and tapping them out to win the play. The runners run in a predecided area and the team that takes the least time to tap or tag all the opponents in the field wins the game.
There is a post on each end, and the runner can run between two players who are knelt, facing in opposite directions, but the chaser is not permitted to turn back while running and go between the players. The chaser can go to the pole, touch it and can return or go to another side.
The starting point of Kho-Kho is tough to follow, however, numerous students of history trust, that it is a changed type of 'Run Chase', which in its easiest structure includes pursuing and tagging an individual. With its root in Maharashtra, Kho-Kho, in ancient times, was played on 'raths' or chariots and was known as Rathera.
The first kho-kho competitions were held in 1914, and the main national title was held in 1959 at Vijayawada under the support of the Kho-kho Federation of India (KKFI), which was shaped in 1955. The years 1960-61 included Women's Championship for the first time in Kohlapur, Maharashtra.
From that point forward, the KKFI has attempted incredible endeavours to promote the amusement, which is presently played crosswise over India at different dimensions and levels, from schools to the national group. Kho-kho was incorporated as an exhibition sport at the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games and the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1987. It was amid the SAF Games that the Asian Kho-kho Federation was framed, which later advanced kho-kho in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
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Men's Event
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Women's Event
Kho kho is divided into two innings of 9 minutes each and is played in by two teams of twelve players each side out of which nine enter the field and each of them avoids being touched by the opposing team's player/s. The sport can be conducted either between two teams of men or two teams of women.
The kho kho playground is in a rectangular shape which measures 30 m in length and 19 m in width with two rectangles at the end.
The length of the rectangle is 16 m and the width is 2.75 m. In the midst of these two rectangles, there are two wooden poles held in an upright position. The central lane is 23.50 m long and 30 cm wide and there are eight cross lanes which rest across the central lane. The dimensions of the cross lane are 16 m x 30 cm.
Referee
One referee officiates the match, checking the state of the playing field according to the rules of the game, supervising and helping umpires, observing the runners, their entry from the free zone, punishing players for their misconducts and announcing the scores.
Umpire
There are two umpires to conduct the match, declare a touch as well as fouls, and to implement game rules between both the teams.
Timekeeper
The timekeeper has the responsibility of checking the duration of each quarter play, declaring the end of each quarter, checking the break-time duration and noting the time taken to touch-out a runner by both teams in case of a tie match.
Scorer
The scorer as its title says, records the score of teams, checks the order of the running team, sends next group in the entry zone area.
