Sports and India

Indian sports is in a state of complete disorder. Despite the growing billion+ population, Indian sports just hasn't clicked together. Atleast not yet...

But the bright side is that the whole Indian sports presence is increasing globally, albeit slowly. Lets look at some of the Indian sports people who have made it globally.

Cricket is a sport where India is well established. When talking about Indian Cricket, the name that jumps into everyone's mind is :- Sachin Tendulkar. He is truly a global Cricket superstar. He is widely considered the best batsman in the world. But this isnt a one man army type thing. There are others : Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag, Kumble, etc... And there are many amazingly contested matches between India and its political rival Pakistan. But this is well known in the world and so lets move on without much ado to other sports.

Tennis. In tennis, we have always had a representative. The Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi doubles partners have been ranked the number 1 on many occasions. Thats number one in the world. Now they have split. Paes is with Navratilova and Bhupathi with Mary Pierce. But currently the hot news is Sania Mirza. She is a young and energetic player who has won over many an Indian praise and heart. The recently concluded Wimbeldon(her first appearance) saw her breeze past the first round with ease. But she was defeated in the second round. But that was not a bad thing because she put up a fight with the more fancied Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. This spirited performance made one BBC commentator say "Sania Mirza, remember that name cause we are going to see a lot of her." Although she isn't in the league of a Maria Sharapova, she still has an unbeleivably large fan following here in India.

F1. One name : Narain Karthikeyan. Yup, an indian in the eighteen elite drivers from around the world. He is dubbed 'the fastest Indian'. In such a high profile sport like the Formula 1, the presence of an Indian is really meritorious. He drives a Jordan car. This explains why he hasn't accumulated any points(except on one occasion he finished 4th). But he has finished in front of his teammate Monteiro on most occasions. He too isn't in the league of a Montoya or Schumaker, but this could do wonders for Indians aspiring to be F1 drivers.
Hockey. India is a well known and established name in Hockey. But hockey in India is marred in politics and no steps are taken to improve its standards. Lets leave it at that.

Chess. Vishwanathan Anand. He was the first Asian to win the World Chess Championship. He has defeated Kasparov on numerous occasions. He is truly India's intellectual sport brand ambassador.

Soccer. Nothing of significance has ever been achieved by India in football. Personally, i would love for India to excell in football more than any other sport. But like hockey, this too is marred in political controversies and a chronic dose of doing nothing.

Athletics. Except for a few tiny blips on the radar screen(like Anju Bobby George) nothing of much significance.