Games Indians Play - Throwball

Throwball is a non-contact team sport with seven players per team and five substitutes. The ball is ‘served’ with one hand from across the net and the opposite team player has to catch it and throw it back within seconds. The usual ball sport rules of lines, nets and points apply. Throwball is presumed to have been introduced in Chennai, in the 1940s but it was not until 1955 that the rules and guidelines of playing the sport were formulated by Dr. Harry Crowe Buck, the Head of Department, YMCA College of Physical Education, Chennai. It took until 1980 for the first national level tournament to be organised in Bengaluru, Karnataka. However, for all its slow growth, what began originally as a ‘womens’ sport’ introduced in India, has now become a popular sport in Asia played across schools and colleges, having its own international federation with regional bodies.

An edited version of the article was published in Culturama's October 2012 Issue.