After World Cup in India, Kho Kho Hopes to Go Global

Sitting off to the side in a quiet spot at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium during TEAMS Europe, Rohit Haldania had a story to tell. It’s a story that resonates throughout sports, one where a sport is passed down through generations.

For Haldania, the story was the Indian sport of Kho Kho, knowing that the International Kho Kho Federation had just organized its inaugural World Cup, an event years in the making. It was the culmination of a personal passion, having co-founded the international federation in 2017 and working with his father, Brij Haldania, to spread the game around the world.

“Being on Star Sports, the same channel as the biggest properties in sports like India vs. Pakistan cricket, WWE, Premier League football, to see Kho Kho on that same platform, a sport that my father and I have been a part of promoting, a game he taught me himself, it was just a huge full circle moment,” said Haldania.

India’s men’s and women’s teams swept the 2025 World Cup in New Delhi, in which 23 countries from six continents participated. The 2027 World Cup is scheduled to be in England.

“It put Kho Kho on the map very firmly,” said Haldania, who serves as secretary general of the IKKF. “Getting the public of India behind this indigenous sport that they’ve known for centuries, and seeing the world know that the whole population is really backing this game.”

Learning the Game

Kho Kho dates to ancient India with a “test format” featuring nine players and a different format with seven players, which is how the 2025 World Cup was played.

The sport is played on a rectangular court with a central lane connecting two poles at either end of the court. During a “test format” game, eight players from the attacking team sit in the central lane, while three runners from the defending team run around the court and try to avoid being touched.

One player from the attacking team may run around the court to tag members of the defending team. Each tag earns a point and those players must leave the field. But the one player who can chase others is restricted from crossing the central lane to access the other half of the court and cannot change direction once they begin running toward either pole.

These restrictions can be bypassed if the chaser either switches roles with a sitting teammate by touching them on the back while saying “Kho” or by running behind either pole to switch direction. Each team alternates between scoring and defending, with two turns for each role. Each turn lasts nine minutes.

While India won both men’s and women’s competitions at the World Cup — both beating Nepal in the respective finals — teams in the competition included a range of squads from Brazil, Peru, the Netherlands, England, the United States, Kenya and Australia.

“The journey of attracting new teams has been something in the making for 10 years,” said Haldania, who with his father went to six continents to develop the game worldwide.

“I think that was the most interesting aspect,” he added. “When you’ve got a team like Brazil playing against India and you’re seeing they can understand this deeply historic game, even the Indian fans celebrated both teams.”

Big Hopes for Future

When the Kho Kho World Cup was held in India, it was noticed on social media and mentioned by legendary India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Kho Kho is a medal sport in the South Asian Games and Haldania hopes it will be able to be part of a future Asian Games.

Haldania has met with leaders from the Commonwealth Games, which could end up in India in the future. The main goal is to be considered as a demonstration sport at the 2036 Olympic Summer Games should those Games be awarded to India. The game also wants to grow in the United States.

“Being part of TEAMS gives us a big opportunity to explore the U.S. space,” said Haldania before heading off to another appointment. “We see Kho Kho being something that develops in the U.S. — not just Kho Kho, beach Kho Kho and other formats could also be interesting to explore.”