I propose kabaddi as our new sport, and it is simply a matter of building on the toehold that was revealed in news reports this week that the Australian team has been thrown out of the kabaddi world cup in India after too many players tested positive to drugs. Two other Australian players, apparently, fled from the drug testers, which is not a good look.

Click on the video below to see kabaddi in action.

I had never heard of kabaddi until I read about the expulsion, the first in kabaddi apparently, and I'm not entirely convinced that it's not an international joke.

Make up your own mind. A player goes into the other team's territory trying to touch as many players as possible while chanting kabaddi kabaddi kabaddi on the one breath. To retain the score he must return to his own territory still reciting kabaddi. Now, the players he's trying to touch are holding hands - soccer players will love that bit - and trying, initially, not to be touched. If, however, one of their number is touched they try to delay the touching player returning to his territory so that he'll have to take a breath. Then the teams swap roles, and this continues for two 20-minute halves on a court less than half the size of a basketball court.

I recall one or two children's games that were similar to kabaddi, and that could be part of the new sport's appeal. Hey, it's not a new sport in south Asia, where it is immensely popular, but it's not a sport in Australia until it is on TV. I put kabaddi up as the sport we have for fun, a sport we appreciate for its silliness.

Has your sport lost the element of fun? Doesn't sport become something else when it becomes heavy with its own importance?