SSC
How many players are there in a Kho Kho team (squad)?
Answer (Detailed Solution Below)View answer ▾Hide ▴
Answer: Option C — 12
Detailed Solution
A Kho Kho team has 12 players in its squad, but only 9 players take the field at a time. The remaining 3 are substitutes.
How Kho Kho is played:
Kho Kho is a traditional Indian tag game, believed to have its roots in Maharashtra. It is played between two teams on a rectangular field with a wooden pole at each end.
The chasing team has 9 players on the field. Eight of them sit (squat) in a line along the central lane, facing in alternate directions, and the ninth player is the active chaser.
The defending team sends its players into the field in batches of three.
The active chaser tries to touch (tag) a defender. The chaser cannot cross the central lane or change direction freely, so he passes the chase to a seated team-mate by touching him from behind and saying "Kho". This is how the game gets its name.
A match has two innings, and each innings has a chasing turn and a defending turn of 7 minutes each (9 minutes in some formats). The team that tags out more defenders wins.
Organisation and growth:
- The Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI) was formed in 1955, and the first national championship was held in 1959-60 at Vijayawada.
- Kho Kho was played as a demonstration sport at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and it was included in the South Asian Games in 2016.
- The professional league "Ultimate Kho Kho" began in 2022, and the first Kho Kho World Cup was held in New Delhi in January 2025, with India winning both the men's and women's titles.
Why not the other options?
- ✗9 is the number of players on the field at one time, not the full team.
- ✗7 is the number of players on court in a kabaddi team.
- ✗11 is the size of a cricket, football or hockey team.
Quick tip
Remember: Kho Kho = 12 in squad, 9 on field (8 sitting + 1 chaser), defenders enter in batches of 3; first World Cup 2025 (India won both titles).
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Sports — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Sports, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers sports GK: major tournaments and their venues, trophies and cups associated with each sport, sports terms, the number of players in a team, sports awards in India, Olympic and Asian Games facts, and famous sportspersons and their achievements. Common questions ask which sport a trophy belongs to (such as the Durand Cup for football or the Ranji Trophy for cricket), which term is used in which sport, and where a tournament was held. Records and results change after every season, so pair static facts such as team sizes and terms with recent results from current affairs. Practise the sports questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.