5 Must See Sporting Events in India

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Navigating a country of over a billion people who only minimally obey traffic regulations can in itself be a mind-boggling sporting event. Turns out, the Indians engage in forms of sport even more intense than a typical Sunday stroll. Get ready for some balls-to-the-wall team activity; OTP’s got your playbook with India’s Top 5 Sporting Events.

Kila Raipur Sports Festival

What started as a way for farmers to get laid by impressing maidens with their brawn has now become an international event in Kila Raipur. Every year in February, this small village near Ludhiana hosts 4,000 participants in these increasingly-popular rural Olympics. Over a million spectators make the event a spectacle; the rustic athletics make this a must-attend event for any enthusiast worth his own ass sweat. Kabaddi, an odd mix of football, karate and tag, is one event where burly, half-naked men run around in teams until some poor sucker hits the ground and is kicked around a while. Rousing the caveman in all of us, this festival became so popular that even foreign teams (U.S.A! U.S.A.!) train for a chance to compete.

IPL

Calling The Indian Premiere League a sport event is a gross understatement—we’re talking 60 matches goin’ head to head over 45 days. This is coked-upcricket on speed! Nothing less than a phenomenon, the IPL was formed in 2008, a professional league of 20 cricket teams promoted by the Board for Control of Cricket in India and backed by the ICI bank. Players who take to the field are like gladiator celebrities, and if you don’t want to look like a douche, do some research on player’s names and reputations before showing up. IPL players are the second-highest paid athletes in the world (the NBA is first), and it’s the first internationally recognized sporting event to be broadcast live on YouTube. A manic obsession in India, Cricket may sound lame but get ready for one of the most intense, ass-beating games you’ve ever seen.

Jallikattu

Think the Running of the Bulls is hardcore? You ain’t seen nothin’ like Jallikattu—a bull taming game that dates back 3,500 years. In ancient Tamil Nadu, the sport was known as “hugging the bull” (Yeru Thaluvudu), though there’s nothing loving about it. “Be gored or be spared” is the mantra of many a brave/stupid man at the Harvest Festival of Pongal, held every year in January. The goal of the main event is to chase down a pissed-off bull unarmed and grab the bundles of money tied to its horns. Back in the day, kings and chieftains determined the worthiness of their daughter’s prospective grooms by seeing if they could survive this blood sport. The event was made illegal a while ago but the Tamil Nadu government has since lifted the ban in exchange for increased animal screenings and the promise of ambulances on site. If you’re going to the Harvest Festival and would prefer to keep your organs intact, head to Alanganallur Village, near Madurai. Find a good vantage point—a treetop, a bullock cart or a rooftop—and watch the mayhem ensue.

Raid De Himalaya

The mother of all cross country rallies, Raid De Himalaya, is the highest in the world. There’s not an adrenalin junkie on the planet who wouldn’t get off on this high altitude motorsport. Started in 1999, this is crazy way to explore the majestic mountain terrain of northern India. It’s open to both professional and amateur, car and bike, enthusiasts divided into three categories: Xtreme, Adventure Trial, and Bikes Xtreme. The Himalaya is 2000 kilometers of inhospitable, unpredictable and unforgiving terrain and at well below freezing temperatures, is sure to knock the last bit of sense out of you. But hey, Evel Knievel didn’t get famous peddling around on his tricycle.

Snake Boat (Chundan Vallum) Races

Move over Harvard Crew—snake boats coming through! Designed and prepared over the course of the year, these 120m-long boats and their rowers gather every August for the Harvest Festival of Onam, making the town of Kerala host to the largest team sport in the world. Thousands of spectators line the banks of the Punnamada Lake in Alppuzha to watch crews of four helmsmen, 25 singers (because you should never leave shore without at least 20 people to sing while you row) and roughly 100 oarsmen race through the churning waves. The first race was organized in 1952 in honor of the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was so impressed that he donated a rolling trophy, still passed on to the winner each year.

Be it a rustic rural sport like kabaddi or a gentleman’s game like cricket, the diversity, vibrancy, and pure, unadulterated energy of India is reflected in its sports. Man up and let it rub off on you.

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