History of Targetball

Dr. Sonu Sharma

Founder- Targetball Game

Secretary General & CEO

Bhartiya Targetball Association (Regd.)

The Indian traditional game of targetball is not considered to have started from today but 150-200 years ago from the soil of Braj. This game is completely indigenous to the soil of Braj. This game is being played since the time of Sonu Sharma's grandfathers and even before them. Once when Dr. Sonu Sharma came to his village during college holidays, his grandfather discussed about his studies and the topic of sports started because Dr. Sonu Sharma's education was in physical education from the beginning. Then grandfather Shri Sundarlal Sharma told him that earlier in his time, there used to be a game in which while playing the game, a cloth ball was hung from a tree on the rubber tire of a bicycle wheel and the person had to throw or catch the ball to each other and make it pass through the same tire. The one who did the most would win. He told that at that time neither the measurement of the ground was known nor the number of players was fixed. Despite this, this game used to be very popular in Braj. When Dr. Sonu Sharma returned from the village, he had only one thought in his mind that he will give a new dimension to the game of Brij Ki Raj played by his grandfathers. After getting his education in physical education, Dr. Sonu Sharma again went to his village on 25 May 2012 and met his grandfather. He again discussed this game with him and started making rules of this game on the basis of his thinking, understanding and ability. Since the making of this game started on 25 May 2012, so from then till now every year 25 May is celebrated as International Targetball Day. On 25 May 2012 itself, Dr. Sonu Sharma addressed this game by naming it Targetball. Since then this game was named Targetball. Till 07 October 2012, Dr. Sonu Sharma worked day and night to make rules for this game to take it to a new dimension. He played these game many times with the players of his own village so that every small flaw of the game could be removed and it could be made an international level game. After the rules of the game were made, Dr. Sonu Sharma gave the official demo station of this game for the first time on 8 October 2012 in the famous school Shri Ji Baba Saraswati Vidya Mandir of District Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. In which people from many states of India participated. Dr. Sharma got his school level education in this school.

The official announcement of this game was made on 8 October 2012 and since then 8 October 2012 is considered the beginning of this game. From that day onwards Dr. Sonu Sharma also started being known as the founder of this game. After the formal announcement of the game, Dr. Sonu Sharma's dream was that this game will be played at the national level. This game should not remain the heritage of Braj but should be played in every state and city of India. Dr. Sonu Sharma went to different states and promoted this Targetball game. Also, the time for the dream that Dr. Sonu Sharma had seen to come true was also determined by destiny. Yes, if we say, it would be absolutely appropriate to say that the game played in the soil of Braj had no name, no identity, no measurement of the ground and no set rules to play it. Even after this, the time had come for the first national competition of the game played by his grandfather in his childhood, which is more than 150-200 years old in history. It was the dream of every Braj resident that this traditional game of theirs should also be played at the national level. After the tireless efforts of Dr. Sonu Sharma, the first officially national level competition of this game was organized from 24 October 2013 to 26 October 2013 in Lord Public School in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh. In which eight states of India participated. For the first time, the competition of this game was organized only for male players. After this national level competition, the game of Targetball started getting appreciated in India. From 2013 onwards, its national level competitions started being organized every year. In the year 2014, competitions for targetball began to be organized at the national level in sub-junior, junior and senior categories. In the year 2014, national level competitions for women also began to be organized. Seeing the popularity of targetball, SGFI (School Games Federation of India) also included this game in its calendar in 2016 and Vidya Bharti RSS schools also included it in their calendar in 2016. Along with this, in 2017, this game was recognized by AIU (Association of Indian Universities). Since 2017, AIU has been organizing university competitions of this game at the All India level every year.