Sportstar·India·Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 03:43 AM

What happened the last time India faced Iran in Asian Games kabaddi final?

Translate

Team Sportstar

India beat Iran in a close 33-29 win to reclaim gold in men’s kabaddi at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. But that summit clash was frought with controversy. | Photo Credit: ANI

India beat Iran in a close 33-29 win to reclaim gold in men’s kabaddi at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. But that summit clash was frought with controversy. | Photo Credit: ANI

India’s men’s and women’s kabaddi teams will clash with arch-rival Iran in their respective finals at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Saturday.

Ahead of these big fixtures, here’s a recap of what happened in the men’s final of the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou. India had come into that edition in China eager to reclaim gold after the men finished with bronze and the women finished with silver in the 2018 Asiad in Jakarta. India failed to make the final in the men’s event for the first time in tournament history, and the women lost to Iran in the final.

Iranians and Indians make up for the two most dominant influences in the sport and regularly join hands and square off against one another in the hugely popular Pro Kabaddi League, a franchise-based private tournament which is the only stable competitive presence in the sport.

In 2023, India was determined to make it back to the top step of the podium. What followed was a final that ended up being more dramantic than anyone would have imagined.

A disagreement over a point saw the ensuing referral stretch for over an hour, eventually forcing a temporary suspension of the match. The impasse saw the Indian coaching contingent and players, including then-captain Pawan Sehrawat, get into a war of words with the judging panel. The Asian and International Kabaddi Federation officials also got involved. In the end, the ruling went India’s way, allowing the men in blue to reclaim their place on top of the podium with a 33-29 win. The Iranians, wearing silver medals like albatrosses around their necks, stood silently a few centimetres below them.

Here’s a full account of what went down in that final, with inputs from erstwhile head coach Edachery Bhaskaran.

The confusion was over how the lobby rule would be adjudged in the game. While amateur Kabaddi deems that defenders following a raider must walk if they go into the lobby without a touch, the hugely popular Pro Kabaddi League, the sport’s most successful franchise entity, amended this rule due to a perceived lack of sporting spirit and a way to turn matches on their heads, which could be used deviously, deeming that if a raider stepped out without a touch, only they lost their place and not the defenders pursuing them. Officials, referees and the Iranian side all went with the PKL version of the lobby rule, while international kabaddi does not.

The sport of kabaddi and its promoters, especially in the subcontinent, have long nursed ambitions of taking the sport to the Olympics. However, this verbal brawl in the biggest game on arguably the biggest stage in the sport made for poor advertising of the discipline and those who play it.

The Indian women’s kabaddi team pipped Chinese Taipei by one point in the final of the 2023 Hangzhou Asiad.

The Indian women’s kabaddi team pipped Chinese Taipei by one point in the final of the 2023 Hangzhou Asiad. | Photo Credit: PTI

In 2023, the women’s kabaddi team helped India reach the magical figure of 100 medals after it defeated Chinese Taipei 26-25 in a thrilling final to clinch gold. India, the 2010 and 2014 champion, reclaimed the gold medal after a shock defeat against Iran in the 2018 final.

Published on Sep 26, 2026

Latest on Sportstar

View the original on Sportstar →

KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.