It is natural that cricket, given its popularity in contemporary India, dominates any round-up of the country’s sporting action, but a number of other sports show how much individuals can achieve on their own, without structured finance or support. We talked to three Indian legends, Sourav Ganguly, Abhinav Bindra and Deepa Malik, to shortlist a sport-by-sport round-up of Indians’ outstanding performance over the past 70 years.
Cricket
A dream came true on June 25, 1983, when India won the World Cup at Lord’s. The win was significant because until then, India’s victories were hardly accorded the recognition they merited. A media revolution followed that saw cricket emerge as a kind of secular religion. “It made me want to be a cricketer that much more,” says former captain Sourav Ganguly. “It made Indian cricket what it is today.” The World Cup triumph at home in 2011 was India’s second tryst with cricketing destiny and consolidated the pre-eminent status of the game.
In 2008, cricket got a dramatic twist. The first edition of the Indian Premier League played to packed houses for 44 manic days, a resounding success that spawned multiple sports leagues, including in tennis, badminton, kabaddi, wrestling and football.
Tennis
Ramanathan Krishnan was one of the first Indian tennis stars to hit the international courts, making history for India by reaching the semi-finals of the Wimbledon men’s singles in 1960 and again in 1961. He lost to the eventual winner in both cases, but made it clear he was one of the best tennis players of his time.
In 1996, Leander Paes went on to win India’s first individual medal in 44 years, beating Fernando Meligeni with an injured wrist at the Atlanta Olympics. (K.D. Jadav’s freestyle wrestling bronze at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics was the first.) Paes covered himself with glory again as a doubles player, when he and partner Mahesh Bhupathi became the world number-one doubles pair in 1999. Finalists at all the grand slams, they won the French Open and Wimbledon.
To make the women in India proud, in 2005, Sania Mirza became the first Indian woman to win a WTA title. She achieved the highest singles ranking by an Indian at 27. Injury has since curtailed a promising career but her 12 medals at multidiscipline competitions, multiple doubles’ grand slam titles and a number-one doubles ranking have made her an Indian sporting legend.
Badminton
In 2001, Pullela Gopichand won the All-England badminton title defeating China’s Chen Hong in straight games, emulating Prakash Padukone in becoming only the second Indian to win the coveted title.
Saina Nehwal broke into the world’s top ten in 2009 to win the Indonesian Super Series as the first Indian woman to do so. She has since won many a super series and an Olympic medal in 2012, besides making it to the number-one position in the world. Young sensation P.V. Sindhu put a shine on a lacklustre Indian performance with a silver in badminton at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Athletics
India’s athletes have inspired millions, starting with Milkha Singh, who won gold at the 1958 Commonwealth Games, in addition to four gold medals at the Asian Games, victory in 77 of the 80 races he ran in his career, and the Helms World trophy in 1959, given by the United States Athletics Federation to the world’s best 400m runner. Only the Olympics eluded him, and he lost by the narrowest of margins at Rome in 1960.
Equally heartbreaking was P.T. Usha’s fourth place at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, but she put it behind her to win five golds and a bronze at the 1985 Asian Track and Field Championships in Jakarta, and surpassed at the Seoul Asian Games the next year with four golds and one silver.
Olympics
Independent India’s first truly significant sports victory was a hockey gold at the 1948 London Olympic Games. There were no live cameras to record the landmark win in London but as Abhinav Bindra agrees, “To beat Britain in Britain within a year of independence and win the hockey gold will forever be a special moment in Indian sporting history.” A hockey gold in Moscow in 1980 offered another reason to celebrate.
Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav will be remembered as India’s first individual Olympic medal winner. At Helsinki in 1952, Jadhav started out in terrific form, winning all his early bouts and was assured of a medal even before he fought his last two fights on July 22. Whether complacency crept in, we will never know, but it’s clear that had Jadhav not lost both his last bouts, he would have managed a higher podium finish.
In 2000, Karnam Malleswari took bronze at the Sydney Olympics in the 69kg women’s weightlifting category, making her medal the only spark in an otherwise disappointing Olympics.
Rajyavardhan Rathore shot his way to the podium at Athens 2004, becoming the first Indian to win a silver medal in an individual event. And when Abhinav Bindra won a gold in shooting at Beijing 2008, the country awoke to the significance of this sport.
Others have also showed their mettle at the Games. Boxer Sushil Kumar, bronze in 2008 and silver in 2012, is India’s most decorated individual Olympian of all time and Mary Kom, bronze in 51kg boxing, turned into India’s new poster girl in 2012. Kom followed up with an Asiad gold in 2014.
Rio 2016 was a celebration of woman power. After P.V. Sindhu’s badminton silver and Sakshi Malik’s wrestling bronze at the Olympics, it was Deepa Malik’s silver in shot put in the Paralympics. “I can’t tell you in words what seeing the tri-colour go up in Rio meant to me,” says Malik. “And I hope it meant as much to my fellow athletes. This medal is for India.”
Billiards and chess
To Wilson Jones goes the distinction of becoming the first Indian to win the world amateur billiards title in 1958. He repeated the feat in 1964. Michael Ferreira followed in his footsteps in 1977 and continued to rule the sport for the best part of the next decade. In the world of Indian chess, Viswanathan Anand was the undisputed king. He became the world champion in 2007 and retained the title in 2008 defeating Vladimir Kramnik.
Football
Once considered one of the best teams in Asia, India had its golden era during the 1950s and early 1960s, when the football team, under Syed Abdul Rahim, won gold during the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games and finished fourth during the 1956 Summer Olympics.
India has never participated in the Fifa World Cup, but the team had qualified for the World Cup in 1950 after all the other nations in their qualification group withdrew. However, India too withdrew due to the expenses required in getting the team to Brazil. India has won the SAFF Championship, the top regional football competition in South Asia, six times since the tournament began in 1993. In 2013, the Indian Super League was founded with the vision to make India a global football power and qualify for the 2026 Fifa World Cup. The inaugural season began on October 12, 2014 and was well received throughout the country.
— With input from Krita Coelho
