Sports in Tamil Nadu

Many sports are played by the people of Tamil Nadu including both traditional sports and sports from other countries.



Life in Tamil Nadu

Traditional Sports

Kabaddi
Women playing Kabaddi in Tamil Nadu

Kabaddi is the state sport of Tamil Nadu. The word "kabadi" is derived from the Tamil word "kai-pidi"(கைபிடி) meaning "to hold hands".[1][2] It is also known as sadu-gudu.

Seval Sandai
Seval sandai, traditional cock fight in Tamil Nadu

Seval Sandai or Seval Porr (cockfighting) is a popular rural sport in Tamil Nadu. Three or four-inch blades are attached to the cocks' feet and the winner is decided after three or four rounds of no holds barred fighting. The sport involves major gambling in recent times. Cockfighting in Tamil Nadu is mentioned in ancient literature like Manu Needhi Sastiram, Kattu Seval Sastiram and other Sangam literature. It is referred to as the favorite pastime for the warriors of Tamil country and is acknowledged as one amongst the 64 great arts.

It involves basically fighting skills for your chicken. Now it is widely played in the places of North America and Asia

Jalikattu
Main article: Jallikattu
Jallikattu, taming the bull
Rekla, bullock cart race

Jallikattu is a popular bull taming sport practiced particularly during Pongal festival. Jallikattu was a popular sport since the Sangam period Tamil classical period.Jallikattu (or sallikkattu), also known as eru thazhuvuthal and manju virattu, is a traditional spectacle in which a bull, such as the Pulikulam or Kangayam breeds, is released into a crowd of people, and multiple human participants attempt to grab the large hump on the bull's back with both arms and hang on to it while the bull attempts to escape. Participants hold the hump for as long as possible, attempting to bring the bull to a stop. In some cases, participants must ride long enough to remove flags on the bull's horns].[3][4]

Rekla
Rekla Racer in Namakkal, Tamil Nadu

Rekla is a sport which is a form of bullock cart racing.[5]

Sathurangam

Chess is believed to have originated in India, c. 280 – 550 CE,[6][7][8][9][10] where its early form in Tamil Nadu was known as Sathurangam literally four divisions [of the military] – infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariotry, represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.

Modern day chess is a widely popular game in the state and Tamil Nadu State Chess Association is the apex body for the game of chess in Tamil Nadu. The state has produced many grandmasters including Viswanathan Anand, one of the greatest and most versatile players of the modern era having won the World Chess Championship five times from 2002 to 2013. Other notable players include S. Vijayalakshmi and Krishnan Sasikiran.

Malyutham

Malyutham is a traditional Indian art of full contact Grappling that originated in Tamil Nadu. It was widely practiced in Tamil Nadu since ancient times as a sport. Malyutham is one of the 64 Arts mentioned in Ancient Literature. Malyutham is one of the Traditional Sports practiced in Tamil Nadu. There is another Art named Malla - Yuddha coming from North India. Although the names are similar, Malla-Yuddha and Malyutham are two different and very distinct Arts. They are different in the nature of the techniques studied and on their external aspects as well.

Gusthi

Gusthi is a Traditional Sports Activity, which is practiced in punjab since time immemorial. Gusthi is also known as Kai Kuthu Sandai. Gusthi is a form of Traditional Boxing, which is slightly deviated from Wrestling. Gusthi of Tamil Nadu is a derivative of Malyutham of Tamil Nadu. Gusthi also includes Grapplings as well. There is another art coming from North India named Kushti. Although the names are almost same, Gusthi and Kushti are two different and two distinct arts. Gusthi is an art of Boxing, while Kusthi is an art of Wrestling. They are different in the nature of the techniques studied and on their external aspects as well.

Killithattu

A game that requires quick reflexes, tactical thinking and tremendous team effort. This sport is a part of our Tamil heritage and preserves our Tamil identity. The ‘kili’ or last player must stand on the centre of the first lane when the game starts. The ‘kili’ player can move anywhere around the court or through the middle of the court but not horizontally. The team that is guarding the base and capturing it is chosen by a coin toss. The game is started by a whistle sound by the overseeing referee. When the game starts, each of the other members can only move sideways/horizontally. This accounts for the rest of the 5 members of the team for a total of 6 including ‘kili’.

Kho-kho

Kho kho is a tag sport played by teams of twelve players who try to avoid being touched by members of the opposing team, only 9 players of the team enter the field.[11] It is one of the two most popular traditional tag games played in schools, the other being kabbadi.[12]

Others

Uriyadi involves smashing a small earthen pot with a long stick usually with a cloth wrapped around the eyes to prevent the participants from seeing the pot.[13] Other minor sports include Ilavatta kal where lift huge spherical rocks,[14] Gilli-danda played with two pieces of sticks, Nondi played by folding one leg and hopping squares. Some of the indoor games include Pallanguzhi involving beads, Bambaram involving spinning of top, Dhayakattai which is a modified dice game, Aadu puli attam, Nungu vandi and Seechangal.[15]

Modern sports

Cricket
M. A. Chidambaram Stadium during an ODI match between India and Pakistan.

Cricket is the most popular sport.[16] It is played by many people in open spaces throughout the state.[17] Tamil Nadu Cricket Association is the governing body of cricket activities in the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Tamil Nadu cricket team, which has won the Ranji Trophy twice and have finished Runners-up 9 times. Chennai Super Kings, a franchise based out of Chennai is the most successful team in the Indian Premier League. Notable international cricketers from Tamil Nadu include Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Kris Srikkanth, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Robin Singh, Murali Vijay, Ravichandran Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Vijay Shankar, Murali Karthik, Subramaniam Badrinath and Lakshmipathy Balaji. Cricket administrators from the state include current International Cricket Council president N. Srinivasan, former BCCI presidents A. C. Muthiah and his father M. A. Chidambaram.

M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai is one of the oldest cricketing venues and was the host of India's first test cricket victory. MRF Pace Foundation, a coaching clinic for training fast bowlers from all over the world is based in Chennai. It was created by MRF Limited with the help of former Australian pace spearhead Dennis Lillee.

Hockey

Hockey is one of the popular sports played in schools and colleges. Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium is a field hockey stadium at Chennai named after M. Radhakrishna Pillai and was the venue to the 1996 Men's Champions Trophy and tournament tournaments. It is also the venue for all division matches of the Chennai Hockey Association and the home ground of the World Series Hockey team Chennai Cheetahs.[18] Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu is planning to set up a hockey academy[19] Notable international players include Vasudevan Baskaran, Krishnamurthy Perumal, M. J. Gopalan, Dhanraj Pillay, Adam Sinclair and Mohammed Riaz.

Tennis

Chennai Open was an ATP World Tour 250 series tournament previously held annually in January at SDAT Tennis Stadium in Chennai. It was the only ATP tournament held in the country until 2017, after which the tournament moved to Pune. Notable players are Ramesh Krishnan, Ramanathan Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj, Mahesh Bhupathi, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, and Nirupama Vaidyanathan.

Motor racing
Kari Motor Speedway

Coimbatore is often referred to as the "Motor sports Capital of India" and the "Backyard of Indian Motorsports".[20] S.Karivardhan, spearheaded motor racing, making Coimbatore the country's motor racing hub when he designed and built entry level race cars. Before Buddh International Circuit was constructed, the country's only two permanent race ways were the Kari Motor Speedway, Coimbatore and Madras Motor Racing Track, Chennai.[21] MRF built is first Formula 3 car in 1997.[22] MRF in collaboration with Maruti established the Formula Maruti racing, a single-seater, open wheel class motorsport racing event for race cars made in India.[23] MRF Challenge is a Formula 2000 open-wheel motorsport formula based series organized by Madras Motor Sports Club in association with MRF. Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok, the only drivers from to represent India in Formula 1 hail from the state. Other prominent racers include Parthiva Sureshwaren, Ashwin Sundar, N. Leelakrishnan, Raj Bharath and Ajith Kumar represented India.[24]

Others

Other popular games include athletics, soccer, basketball, volleyball and badminton. Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai and Nehru Stadium, Coimbatore are popular multipurpose football and athletics stadiums in the state. Notable volleyball players include A. Palaniswamy, G. E. Sridharan and Tamil Nadu men's team won the Gold in National level competition held in 2011.[25] Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal are the notable squash players who won gold at the Commonwealth games. Kutraleeswaran is a notable swimmer, who was the first Indian to cross six channels in a single calendar year.[26] Archery, boxing, carrom, shooting, weightlifting, martial arts, snooker, golf, bowling and squash also feature among sports played. Srither won gold at Asian Archery Championship held at Indonesia in November 2009.[27] A. Maria Irudayam and Ilavzhagi won world carrom championships.[28] Santhi Soundarajan is the first Tamil woman to win a medal at Asian Games. Sathish Sivalingam is a commonwealth gold medalist in weightlifting. Mariyappan Thangavelu has won the gold medal in the finals of 2016 Summer Paralympic games held in Rio de Janeiro.[29][30]

gollark: Oh, no, I mean this is the extreme Andrew was asking about.
gollark: "Hello World" takes 10 seconds to run on a device with a 10GB/s NVMe SSD, 6GHz 16-core CPU and 1TB of RAM.
gollark: And software continues expanding.
gollark: Though we may run into issues as computers stop getting faster as fast as they did.
gollark: It'll probably increase over time.

See also

References
  1. "kabaddi, etymology".
  2. "Kabaddi, definition".
  3. Google books version of the book A Western Journalist on India: The Ferengi's Columns by François Gautier. Retrieved 9 July 2008.
  4. Grushkin, Daniel (22 March 2007). "NY Times: The ritual dates back as far as 2,000 years...". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 July 2008.
  5. "Madurai man wins 'rekla' race". The Hindu. Dindigul, India. 16 February 2009.
  6. http://en.chessbase.com/post/hindi-and-the-origins-of-chess
  7. Leibs (2004), p. 92
  8. Robinson & Estes (1996), p. 34
  9. Murray (1913)
  10. Bird (1893), p. 63
  11. "Tripura KHO KHO Association @ Tripura4u". Archived from the original on 22 August 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  12. Peter A. Hastie (1 July 2010). Student-Designed Games: Strategies for Promoting Creativity, Cooperation, and Skill Development. Human Kinetics. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-0-7360-8590-8. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  13. "Traditional sports and games mark Pongal festivities". The Hindu. Erode, India. 17 January 2011.
  14. "Locked horns and a flurry of feathers". The Hindu. Madurai, India. 12 January 2013.
  15. "Bringing back to life the vanishing games of Tamil Nadu". The Hindu. Coimbatore, India. 18 October 2012.
  16. "Top 10 Most Popular Sports in India". Sporteology.com. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  17. "Ipsos – Nobody's unpredictable". Synovate.com. Archived from the original on 14 April 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  19. "Veteran hockey players delighted with synthetic turf in Tiruchi". The Hindu. Tiruchi, India. 25 January 2011.
  20. "City of speed". The Hindu. 24 April 2006. Retrieved 3 January 2007.
  21. "Memories of Madras: From Sholavaram to Irungattukottai". The Hindu. India. 11 October 2011.
  22. "MRF Sports".
  23. "MRF Limited". NDTV. 14 February 2015.
  24. "Ajith Kumar to drive in F2 European season 2010". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 25 March 2010.
  25. "Tamil Nadu bags volleyball gold". The Hindu. Ranchi, India. 18 February 2011.
  26. Shobha Warrier (6 October 2005). "Why Kutraleeswaran stopped swimming". Rediff India - Sports. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  27. "Champion archer Srither felicitated". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 31 December 2009.
  28. "Carrom champion".
  29. "Paralympics 2016 | Mariyappan Thangavelu wins India's first gold in Rio". 10 September 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  30. Stalin, J. Sam Daniel (10 September 2016). "Paralympian Mariyappan Thangavelu's Golden Leap From Poverty". NDTV Sports. Archived from the original on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
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