Popular Sports in Bangladesh

Why Kabaddi is the Popular Sport in Bangladesh?
Kabaddi is a very popular game in Bangladesh, especially in the villages and, for that; it is also called the 'game of rural Bengal'.
In some areas kabaddi is also known as ha-du-du. But despite its popularity ha-du-du had no definite rules and it used to be played with different rules in different areas. Ha-du-du was given the name kabaddi and the status of National Game in 1972.

Bangladesh Amateur Kabaddi Federation was formed in 1973. It framed rules and regulations for the game. Bangladesh first played kabaddi test in 1974 with a visiting Indian team, which played test matches with the district teams of Dhaka, Tangail, Dinajpur, Jessore, Faridpur and Comilla. In 1978, the Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation was formed at a conference of delegates from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan in the Indian town of Villai.

In 1979, a return test between Bangladesh and India was held at different places of India including Bombay, Hyderabad, and Punjab. The Asian Kabaddi Championship was successfully arranged in 1980 and India emerged as the champion and Bangladesh as the runners-up.

Bangladesh became runners-up again in 1985 in Asian Kabaddi Championship held in Jaipur, India. The other teams included in the tournament were Nepal, Malaysia and Japan. Kabaddi was included for the first time in Asian Games held in Beijing in 1990. Bangladesh took part in it and won silver medal.