India start off as huge favourites in Kabaddi Masters Dubai 2018 : 22nd June - 30th June, Al Wasl Sports Club, Dubai

Kabaddi Masters Dubai 2018 starts today, 22nd June 2018, at the Al Wasl Sports Club. The last 5 years have changed the road map the sport of Kabaddi has taken. From a barely known sport (except in pockets in India) in 2014 to India taking the initiative to take Kabaddi to many different countries, it has been a remarkable journey. Credit largely goes to International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), AKFI and Star Sports. 

Kabaddi Masters, the 9-day event will conclude with Finals on 30th June 2018. The last international tournament of such scale happened in Gorgan, Iran for the Asian Kabaddi Championship in 2017. Dubai Masters on the other hand will be a clash between 6 teams - India, Iran, South Korea, Pakistan and the African nation of Kenya and South American nation of Argentina. Bangladesh will be missed again!

"Kabaddi is fast becoming a renowned sport globally, and we at IKF look forward to exploring options for a comprehensive international Kabaddi calendar that is active annually, successfully pinning Kabaddi across the world map. Kabaddi Masters Dubai 2018 is our first step in that direction and will elevate the stature of our sport considerably. We are thankful to the Dubai Sports Council as well as Star India for their strong role in making this happen”, commented Janardan Singh Gehlot, IKF President. 

The six teams are divided into two groups of three. 

Group A:

India, Pakistan, Kenya

Group B:

Iran, South Korea, Argentina

The teams in each group play two matches against every other team in their respective group, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the semi-finals.

Full schedule

22 June

India vs Pakistan - 8 pm IST

Iran vs South Korea - 9 pm IST

23 June

Iran vs Argentina - 8 pm IST

India vs Kenya - 9 pm IST

24 June

South Korea vs Argentina - 8 pm IST

Pakistan vs Kenya - 9 pm IST

25 June 

Iran vs South Korea - 8 pm IST

India vs Pakistan - 9 pm IST

26 June

Iran vs Argentina - 8 pm IST

India vs Kenya - 9 pm IST

27 June

South Korea vs Argentina - 8 pm IST

Pakistan vs Kenya - 9 pm IST

29 June - Semi-finals

Semi-final1: A1 vs B2 - 8 pm IST

Semi-final2: B1 vs A2 - 9 pm IST

30 June - Final

Winner of Semi-final1 vs Winner of Semi-final2 - 8 pm IST

Full squads

Argentina

Federico Gramajo, Rafael Acevedo, Gabriel Sacchi, Mariano Pascual, Jorge Barraza, Sebastian Desocio, Roman Cesaro, Nahuel Lopez, Javier Camera, Franco Castro, Matias Martinez, Sebastian Canencia, Nahuel Villamayor

India

Ajay Thakur (C), Manjeet Chhillar, Girish Maruti, Ernak, Surjeet, Raju Lal Choudhary, Surender Nada, Mohit Chhillar, Deepak Niwas Hooda, Sandeep Narwal, Pardeep Narwal, Rohit Kumar, Rishank Devadiga, Rahul Chaudhari, Monu Goyat

Iran

Hadi Tajik, Mohammad Amin Nosrati, Amirhossein Mohammad Maleki, Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh, Mohammad Ghorbani, Mohammad Esmaeil Maghsoudlou Mahalli, Mohammad Kazem Naseri, Mohammadreza Shadloui Chianeh, Emad Sedaghatnia, Afshin Jafari, Mohammad Taghi Paein Mahali, Mohammad Malak, Saeid Ghaffari, Hamid Mirzaei Nader

Kenya

David Mosambayi, Ogak Odhiambo, Chrispine Otieno, Obiero Victor, Obilo James, Erick Ocheing Oduor, Nicholas Mutua, Embuga George, Elphas Otieno, James Kamweti, Patrick Nzau, Izaac Njoroge, Esau Otieno, Kevin Wire

Pakistan

Nasir Ali, Waqar Ali, Mudassar Ali, Qaisir Abbas, Kashif Razzaq, Muhammad Nadeem, Sajjad Shaukat, Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Safian, Abid Hussain, Akhlaq Hussain, Wasim Sajjad, Muhammad Nisar, Muzammal Hussain

South Korea

Lee Dong Geon, Eom Tae Deok, Lee Jae Min, Lee Jang Kun, Hong Dong Ju, Kim Dong Gyu, Park Chan Sik, Jo Jae Pil, Kim Seong Ryeol, Park Hyun Il. Kim Gyung Tae, Ko Young Chang

Telecast:

All matches will be shown LIVE on Star Sports network.