Sixteen Teams, One Ground, 43 °C: Building the Kabaddi Fixture
Your school has 16 house teams for the inter-house kabaddi tournament, and the whole event must finish in three days because the ground is handed over for the annual function on the fourth. There is one mud ground, available from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.; between those times the May sun pushes the temperature to 43 °C and there is no shade anywhere on the field. Each match needs a 40-minute playing slot plus 10 minutes for cleaning the ground and getting the next teams on. One water tap stands at the far corner, and there is no doctor on site - you are the only Physical Education teacher, helped by two Class XII students. On day one, one team's raider plays his third match in four hours and begins complaining of cramps and dizziness, while a defender from another team says he has "not passed urine since morning". Half of the semi-final slots are still to be fixed.
1. Calculate how many matches the tournament needs and how you will distribute them across the available hours. Show the arithmetic and justify where you place each round.
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A single knock-out with 16 teams needs N − 1 = 15 matches (8 first round, 4 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals, 1 final). No byes are needed because 16 is a power of two.
Slot maths: morning 8:00–11:30 = 210 minutes ÷ 50 = 4 slots; evening 4:00–6:30 = 150 minutes ÷ 50 = 3 slots. That is 7 matches a day, so 15 matches fit into three days (7 + 7 + 1), but the distribution must respect recovery, not just arithmetic.
Placement: Day 1 uses all 7 slots for first-round matches, Day 2 morning slot 1 takes the 8th first-round match, then the 4 quarter-finals in Day 2 slots 2–5, and Day 3 takes both semi-finals in the morning and the final in the evening. The final gets the longest gap because it is the highest-intensity match. A team that plays the last evening slot is never scheduled in the first slot of the next session, so every team gets at least one full session (about 12 hours) between matches and never less than two hours' rest. Rounds are played in the cooler hours; no match is scheduled between 11:30 and 4:00.
2. Handle the raider with cramps and dizziness, and the defender who has not passed urine since morning. What does each case tell you about your schedule?
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The raider has three matches in four hours plus cramps and dizziness - that is heat exhaustion with dehydration and fatigue, not simple tiredness. Act: stop him for the day, move him to shade, loosen clothing, fan him, apply cool wet cloths to neck, armpits and groin, and give ORS in small sips (about 150–200 ml every 15 minutes) only while he is fully alert. No salt tablets, no icy chiller, no sending him back on. Dizziness after exertion with heavy sweating needs a doctor if he does not improve within 30 minutes or becomes confused.
The defender with no urine since morning is the more worrying history: no urine output suggests significant dehydration and possible kidney strain, even if he looks fine. Send him to the health centre with a teacher; do not accept "I'll drink water at lunch".
Schedule lesson: three matches in four hours is a planning failure, not bad luck. One match per session per team, a minimum two-hour gap, and a mandatory hydration and cooling break inside every match.
3. State three rules you will announce before day one that reduce heat risk without shortening the tournament.
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Fixed hydration breaks: a 5-minute break at half-time in every match plus a 60-second drink stop in each half; each player drinks 150–200 ml, and the two Class XII helpers carry water to both ends so nobody runs 40 metres in the heat.
Rest rule: no team plays two matches in the same session, and every team gets at least two hours between matches. This also stops a strong raider being over-played.
Shade, dress and monitoring: one shade tent and a 20-litre water drum at each end, light cotton kit only (no tracksuits or sweat suits), and a simple urine-colour check at the start of each session. Any player with cramps, dizziness, headache or no urine output sits out for the rest of the day.
Reasoning: heat illness is prevented by reducing exposure, replacing fluid and spotting early signs - none of which requires cancelling matches, and all of which are cheap.