At least five players representing Canada in the the kabaddi “World Cup” being held in Punjab, India have tested positive for banned substances as the tournament was wracked with a series of doping scandals.
The event, being held in the northern state of Punjab, has brought 14 teams together from across the world to play the popular and highly physical South Asian game, which mixes tag with wrestling.
The “World Cup” — which is not officially recognised as there is no international governing body for the sport — has seen more than 30 players test positive for banned substances since it began on November 1.
The dope count at press time according to officials and Indian media was Australia 7, USA 3, Canada 5, UK 3, Norway 2, Italy 1, Argentina 1, Spain 1, Germany 1, India 1
The Australian national team was last weekend thrown out of the tournament.
Five Australians failed dope tests and two others refused to give urine samples, leaving the country unable to field a team for their match against Afghanistan last Saturday.
India beat Canada 51-24 at Doda village in Muktsar district, Punjab last week to make the last four. The finals of the 20-day tournament will be played at Ludhiana Nov 20.
US team member Manjinder Singh allegedly tried to substitute his urine samples with water and verbally abused National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) staff when he was caught, the Times of India reported.
“With so many players caught in (the) doping net, it will be set a good precedent for next year,” NADA director general Rahul Bhatnagar told the Times.
“But at the same time it leaves many questions unanswered on the fair play in the tournament. Doping is nothing but cheating. I don’t know what organisers are going to do about it in this year’s event.”
Officials declined to identify the banned substances but press reports said some were for the anabolic steroid nandrolone.
Kabaddi involves an individual player raiding the opposition team’s territory while chanting “kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi” until he runs out of breath.
His opponents, who generally hold hands, try to snare him and stop him from returning to his home base.
Sports doping has become a major issue in India and authorities have had to impose stern testing regimes.
Correspondents say that because kabaddi has no national or international governing body, anti-doping measures among the 14 teams taking part in the World Cup are much harder to enforce.
The lack of regulatory bodies in the sport has also led some critics to complain that teams participating in the tournament do not represent their countries.
Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the state’s sports minister, wants the world, especially Punjab, to believe that the government is spending millions of rupees to popularise kabaddi
But critics said it is no secret that the 20-day event, is being held with an eye on assembly elections likely in February-March next year.
Badal, the man behind World Cup Kabaddi, wants the world to believe that teams from 14 countries are participating in the event.
But the opposition is hardly amused.
Former chief minister and Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh lashed out at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal for presiding over “the semi-nude dance by semi-nude women in Bathinda (at the opening ceremony) in the name of kabbadi”.
Calling it a “shameless act”, Amarinder said: “This is only a show for Sukhbir’s personal survival where he has crossed all the limits of modesty for gathering crowds to satisfy his ego. The teams participating in the tournament are not representing their countries and have not been recognised by their respective governments.”
A look at the composition of most teams - from Canada, US, Britain, Australia, Norway to others - clearly revealed that majority of the participating players were youths of Punjabi origin settled in those countries. While some of the countries do not even recognise kabaddi as a sport, the participating teams had no official recognition at all to represent those countries. Some of the teams were not even regular club sides for kabaddi in those countries.
For the first time, four teams - India, US, UK and Turkmenistan - are participating in the women’s world cup kabaddi this time.
The total prize money for the men and the women kabaddi world cup exceeds  C$800,000.