US, England, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil are among the teams that have confirmed their participation in the inaugural Kho Kho World Cup to be held in India from January 13 to 19.
New Delhi's Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium and the Noida Indoor Stadium will host the week-long event which will see participation from 24 countries, news agency PTI said. The tournament will be held for both men and women, the report added.
The event will be held in league-cum-knockout format, said Sudhanshu Mittal, who is the president of the Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI) and chairman of the tournament's organising committee. The knock-out games will begin after the group games consisting of 12 teams come to a close, earlier reports had hinted.
Among Asian countries, Indonesia will send only their women's team while all other nations will send both their men's and women's squads.
In October, Door Darshan News reported that Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda will arrive in New Delhi from the African continent for the World Cup while England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland will represent Europe. Alongside India and Indonesia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, South Korea, and Sri Lanka will be the other participating Asian teams. United States, Canada, Australia New Zealand, Brazil and Peru are the other teams.
Needless to say, India and Pakistan are likely to field the strongest teams in both categories.
Mittal said that 615 players and 125 support staff will take part in the event. Each team will comprise 15 players, one coach, one manager and international technical officials.
