The point that was never whistled
Inter-house kabaddi final, second half, House A leads 30–28 with about 90 seconds left. House B's raider Sameer has had two consecutive empty raids. On the next raid he crosses the baulk line canting loudly, dodges two defenders and is caught by a third, Amit, who grips his ankle. During the struggle Amit's left foot slides clearly into the lobby; the referee is watching the raider's cant and does not whistle. Sameer breaks free, touches a second defender on his way back and reaches his own half. The referee awards House B one point. House A's captain protests that Amit's foot was out and House B should therefore get two points, and also claims the raid was do-or-die. House B's coach argues that Sameer's cant paused during the struggle and that he should have been declared out. The scorekeeper has entered 31–28 and asks you, the student official keeping the score sheet, what to write.
1. Working through each rule separately, what should the score actually have been, and why?
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Separate the three questions; they have different answers.
- Do-or-die. Two empty raids had already gone by, so this third raid did carry the do-or-die condition: if Sameer had returned without a point he would have been out and House A would have gained a point. But he did score a touch. Once the raider scores, the condition is satisfied, the raid counts as successful and the empty-raid sequence resets. So there is no extra penalty and no extra point for House A on this count.
- Cant. Canting must continue from the start of the raid until the raider reaches his own half. If the referee judged the cant continuous, that judgement stands - the coach is raising a factual opinion, not a rule.
- The foot in the lobby. The lobby is out of bounds for a defender. A defender who goes into the lobby while in contact with the raider is out and the raiding side is entitled to a point, in addition to the touch point already earned. On the rules alone, House B should therefore have had two points, not one.
So the 'correct' application would have been a two-point raid, taking House B to 30 and House A to 30. That is what the rules say - but it is not automatically what gets written down, because of who decides.
2. The referee missed the foot in the lobby. What can the two captains and the officials actually do about it?
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This is the part students get wrong: the right answer is procedural, not emotional.
- The referee's decision on a question of fact is final. He did not see the foot; nothing on a school ground can replay it. Arguing louder, refusing to continue or surrounding the referee risks a misconduct report and does nothing to change the call.
- The captain may ask for clarification politely, through the referee, at a stoppage - not by shouting across the court.
- A formal protest is lodged in writing after the match, through the team's teacher-in-charge to the tournament committee, before the result is declared, stating exactly what happened and when. The committee decides what weight a claim unsupported by any official's observation carries.
- The match is not stopped or replayed on the field. House A plays the remaining 90 seconds under protest.
- The referee should be told at the next break about the foot, calmly, and reminded to watch the defenders' feet during ankle holds. This is coaching of an official, not overruling of a decision.
- Both sides should be told the same thing, in the same words, so the decision does not look partial.
The principle: officials' factual decisions are final on the field; disputes are settled by correct procedure; and a referee's mistake is corrected only before the next whistle or by the committee afterwards.
3. What do you enter in the score sheet, and what should the referee do at the next break?
Read the worked answer
Write what happened, including the uncertainty - do not silently 'correct' it.
In the score sheet:
- Enter the score as awarded on the field, 31–28, because the score sheet is the record of the referee's decisions, not of your opinion of them.
- In the remarks column, record: raider's name and team, the touch point awarded, the time, and the protest by House A's captain with the exact reason - 'defender Amit's left foot entered the lobby during the ankle hold; referee did not see it; captain claims a second point'.
- Record House B's coach's claim about the cant in the same neutral wording. Sign and get the referee and both captains to sign. A disputed match with a blank remarks column is far harder to resolve than one with a clear note.
What the referee should do at the next break:
- Acknowledge the protest to both captains in identical words, confirm it is being recorded, and ask them to continue.
- Tell his assistant or the second referee to watch defenders' feet in the lobby and the raider's cant independently, so one official is not tracking everything.
- Afterwards, review honestly with the tournament committee, and if a rule was misapplied, fix the process for the next match rather than the result of this one.
What you must not do is change 31–28 to 30–30 on your own initiative. A scorer who edits the record has stopped being an official and become a participant.