A SCOTS team flew out to India for their first ever World Cup event.

They will take part in the third Kabbadi World Cup, in the Punjab, between Saturday, December 1 and 15.

Kabaddi is a traditional outdoor combative sport and is played in 51 countries.

It is the national game of Bangladesh, and the state game of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh in India.

The team, from Strathclyde University Rugby Club, is being sponsored by Glasgow City Councillor Sohan Singh, a local hotelier and restaurant owner.

He has been forging business and cultural links between the city and his home country and is chairman of the Scottish Kabaddi Association.

Councillor Singh said: "This is the first time Scotland has been invited to participate in the World Cup.

"It has come as a direct result of Glasgow hosting the Commonwealth Games.

"The team is confident. They know the game well and have played it many times. They use Kabaddi to warm up for rugby matches.

"I believe they will do better in this international tournament than our national rugby team!"

The sport's governing body is hoping to have the game played at the Olympics in 2018.

Kabaddi, which is like a rougher form of 'Tig', is believed to have been invented to establish techniques in individuals against group attacks and to co-ordinate group responses to individual attacks.

It is played by two teams of seven, who try to enter the opposing team's half and tag an opposition player, before returning to their own half of the pitch without being tagged.