Roll Ball

Overview

Origin

India, 2001 — invented in Pune by Raju Dabhade

Category

Team

Olympic discipline

No

Paralympic discipline

No

Central pathway

None recorded

Athlete profiles on SportSupport

0

Governance and status

Each field below is shown only where we hold a source for it; anything else reads “Not currently verified” rather than a guess. Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition is granted year by year, so it is only ever shown with the year it applies to. Last reviewed: September 2026.

Indian governing/organising body

Roll Ball Federation of India

Ministry recognition

Roll Ball Federation of India — Annual recognition renewed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports; no 2026 order is published on the Ministry list — as at 2025Source: Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports — List of recognised National Sports Federations

International federation

Not currently verified

Khelo India inclusion

Not currently verified

TOPS eligibility

Not currently verified

Olympic status

Not on the Olympic programme

Paralympic status

Not a Paralympic discipline

Scholarships & Funding

Central, state and private scholarships available for roll ball athletes in India.

• No central scholarship pathway

  Roll Ball does not appear on the official Khelo India Games discipline list (Sports Authority of India / Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports), so Khelo India, TOPS and the National Sports Development Fund do not cover it. Athletes self-fund or rely on club and private support.

No athlete profiles are recorded for roll ball yet. We only list athletes we can source, so this section stays empty until verifiable profiles exist.

Rules

Roll Ball is played on roller skates by two teams of 12 (six on court, including a goalkeeper, with six substitutes) on a hard court roughly 40m x 20m with goals at each end. Players dribble, pass and pivot on skates and score by throwing the ball into the opponents' goal; the ball may be held for a limited time and only a set number of steps/strokes before it must be passed or shot. Matches are played over four quarters (commonly 4 x 10 or 4 x 15 minutes depending on age group), and the team with more goals wins. Pushing, holding, tripping, deliberate skate contact and rough play draw free throws, penalty throws or temporary suspension; the goalkeeper alone may handle the ball inside the goal area. Age-group competition runs U-11, U-14, U-17 and Above-17 for boys and girls.

Authoritative rulebook: Roll Ball Federation of India.

Positions

Typical roles across team sports. These are category-level descriptions, not a sourced roll ball squad list.

• Attackers / forwards
  Primary scorers who operate closest to the opposition goal or scoring zone.
• Midfielders / all-rounders
  Link play between defence and attack; usually the highest work-rate positions.
• Defenders
  Deny the opposition space and possession in the defensive third.
• Goalkeeper / last line
  Specialist stopper with distinct kit and rules; the final line of defence.
• Captain & vice-captain
  On-field leadership, decision-making and communication with match officials.

Equipment

Standard kit and infrastructure required to train and compete in roll ball at a federation-recognised event.

• Quad or inline roller skates (beginner kit approx. ₹5,000-6,000)
• Roll Ball (similar in size to a handball/netball)
• Helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards
• Goalkeeper gloves
• Goals at each end of a hard, smooth court
• Team jersey, shorts and mouthguard

Governing/organising body

Major Indian Events

Domestic competitions we hold a source for in roll ball.

• National Roll Ball Championships

  Organized across boys' and girls' age groups (U-11, U-14, U-17, Above-17) by the Roll Ball Federation of India (RBFI), which we list as the Indian governing/organising body for the sport and which reports 27 state/UT associations. The 22nd Senior National Championship was held in Indore in 2025. We hold no current-year Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition record for RBFI, so no current recognition is shown here and we do not present it as the sole national body.

International Events

Continental and world-level competitions we hold a source for in roll ball.

• Roll Ball World Cup

  India is by far the most successful nation, having won 5 of 7 men's titles and 3 of 7 women's titles since the tournament's 2011 debut — itself hosted in Pune, India, the sport's birthplace. At the most recent, 7th World Cup (Dubai, December 2025, 15 nations), India reclaimed both the men's and women's titles from two-time defending champion Kenya, in what organizers called a historic comeback.

• Junior Roll Ball World Cup

  India swept both the boys' and girls' titles at the inaugural edition, held in Kenya in 2025.

Leagues

No dedicated professional league is currently catalogued for roll ball. The national championship under Roll Ball Federation of India remains the top domestic competition.

International Players

Globally recognised roll ball athletes to know outside India.

The international federation for roll ball maintains the current world ranking — check the federation site for the up-to-date top names.

Career Options

Ways to build a career in roll ball — on the field, on the sidelines and behind the scenes.

• Roll Ball was invented in India by Raju Dabhade, a Pune sports teacher, in the early 2000s — combining roller skating, basketball, handball and throwball into a uniquely Indian sport that has since spread to over 60 countries with 100,000+ registered players internationally, per the International Roll Ball Federation, which Dabhade also helped found and serves as secretary of
• The sport is praised for low equipment costs (a beginner kit costs roughly ₹5,000-6,000) and growing school programmes, offering genuine scholarship and sports-quota career pathways
• Playing pathway through RBFI's state associations and national age-group championships; coaching and refereeing certification through RBFI's regular national courses

No roll ball academies are catalogued in the directory yet. Browse the full academy list or list your academy to appear here.

Central and state schemes that fund training, stipends and awards for roll ball athletes and academies.

• Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
  Recruitment of Meritorious Sportspersons to Group C Posts in the Central Government (DoPT Sports Quota)

  Under instructions of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), central government ministries and departments can directly recruit meritorious sportspersons to Group C posts (including erstwhile Group D) that are filled by direct recruitment, in relaxation of the normal recruitment procedure. The list of qualifying sports has 65 disciplines (63 listed in 2020, with Tennis Ball Cricket added in January 2021 and Yogasana in June 2022). Kudo, Karate, Taekwondo, Golf, Judo, Boxing, Wrestling, Badminton, Cricket and Tennis are among them. Railways and a few scientific and atomic-energy services follow separate rules.

FAQs

Common questions about roll ball in India.

Roll Ball in every state & UT

Dedicated pages for Roll Ball in each Indian state and Union Territory — academies, schemes, athletes and how to start.

• Roll Ball in Andhra Pradesh
• Roll Ball in Arunachal Pradesh
• Roll Ball in Assam
• Roll Ball in Bihar
• Roll Ball in Chhattisgarh
• Roll Ball in Goa
• Roll Ball in Gujarat
• Roll Ball in Haryana
• Roll Ball in Himachal Pradesh
• Roll Ball in Jharkhand
• Roll Ball in Karnataka
• Roll Ball in Kerala
• Roll Ball in Madhya Pradesh
• Roll Ball in Maharashtra
• Roll Ball in Manipur
• Roll Ball in Meghalaya
• Roll Ball in Mizoram
• Roll Ball in Nagaland
• Roll Ball in Odisha
• Roll Ball in Punjab
• Roll Ball in Rajasthan
• Roll Ball in Sikkim
• Roll Ball in Tamil Nadu
• Roll Ball in Telangana
• Roll Ball in Tripura
• Roll Ball in Uttar Pradesh
• Roll Ball in Uttarakhand
• Roll Ball in West Bengal
• Roll Ball in Andaman & Nicobar Islands
• Roll Ball in Chandigarh
• Roll Ball in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
• Roll Ball in Delhi
• Roll Ball in Jammu & Kashmir
• Roll Ball in Ladakh
• Roll Ball in Lakshadweep
• Roll Ball in Puducherry