Bhubaneswar, June 20 -- Long before cricket bats, gaming consoles and smartphones captured children's attention, dusty village grounds and neighbourhood lanes across India echoed with the sound of a wooden stick striking a tiny tapered piece of wood. That game was Gilli-Danda-a simple yet highly skilled outdoor sport played using just two sticks: the larger danda and the smaller gilli.

Widely regarded as one of the Indian subcontinent's oldest traditional games, historians and sporting organisations trace its roots back more than 2,500 years, with references linked to the Mauryan era and early regional literature.

Despite requiring almost no equipment, Gilli-Danda demands remarkable hand-eye coordination, precision and quick reflexes, m...