Jammu's school-sports calendar has a lively new fixture this week: Stephens International Public School (SIPS) is hosting the CBSE Kabaddi Cluster-XVIII (2026-27) tournament, and the mats are packed. Around 500 young players from 20 CBSE-affiliated schools have turned up to grapple for cluster honours in one of India's oldest indigenous sports.
The three-day tournament, which began on July 24, was inaugurated by MLA Nagrota Devyani Rana as chief guest, with SSP Suram Singh as guest of honour. The opening ceremony had the flavour of a proper games meet — a welcome song by the school choir, followed by the lighting of the mashaal to declare the competition open.
Cheering on indigenous sport
Addressing the young athletes, Rana appreciated CBSE's efforts to promote indigenous sports and encouraged students to strike a healthy balance between academics and physical fitness — a message that lands well in a city where exam pressure often crowds out the playground. SSP Suram Singh, for his part, highlighted the value of discipline and teamwork, describing kabaddi as "a game of strength, strategy and stamina." It's an apt summary of a sport that demands breath control, quick decision-making and raw courage in equal measure.
Why school clusters matter
The CBSE cluster system is the grassroots layer of school sport in India: schools across a designated region compete, and the strongest players and teams move up towards national-level CBSE competitions. For a Jammu student, a cluster meet like this is a genuine first step — a chance to be spotted, to test themselves against 19 other schools, and to see how far a home-grown talent for kabaddi can travel. And the barrier to entry is refreshingly low: kabaddi needs no expensive kit or imported equipment — just a marked court, two teams of seven, and the lung-power to chant "kabaddi, kabaddi" through a raid — which makes it one of the most democratic sports a Jammu school can field a team in.
Kabaddi's stock, meanwhile, has never been higher; a glossy professional league has turned raiders and defenders into television stars and given school players real role models to chase. Hosting 500 participants is also a marker of how far Jammu's schools have come as sporting venues in their own right. As the mashaal burns through the week, the city gets a reminder that some of its most exciting young athletes aren't on a cricket pitch — they're on a kabaddi mat, one raid at a time.
Sources: Daily Excelsior — 'SIPS hosts CBSE Kabaddi Cluster XVIII tourney'; Jammu Links News.
