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For those of you who dont believe it, you better start because Indias a powerhouse in the world of sports and Ill tell you why.
By Kartik Das
There are many common misconceptions about the correlation between India and sports. People feel that India is an irrelevant sporting nation. It may be true that India doesn't have a sports culture that runs deep into its history but no one should doubt the success of the nation in the 21st century. Looking and examining at how adept a country is at sports compared to another can be very difficult; however, it is simple and straightforward to dissect a country's sporting prowess individually.
And that's exactly what I have here.
One way to judge a country's sporting level could be to analyze its Olympic performances.
Dating back to the Games of the II Olympiad (1990 Summer Olympics), India finished 19th - its best ever finish. That may seem impressive, but don't forget only 25 teams competed in that international multi-sport event.
Close to present, India has achieved the rankings of 71st, 71st, 65th and 50th at the 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics respectively. These results seem ordinary and they are, but again, they're misleading.
The Olympics doesn't include snooker, billiards, chess, cricket, formula one and golf. These are events in which India has a very good chance to win a medal and even gold. If these sports were included in the previous Olympics and India had picked up gold or even some other medals, the country would have been catapulted into the top 30 by the end of each of those Olympics - going to show the incongruous relationship between India's sporting level and its Olympic performance.
Firstly, I will reason why India could beat any other country at those five sports - all of which are more popular than some current Olympic sports.
At billiards and snooker, our Indian star, Pankaj Advani, is a World Champion. Only he has ever achieved the "grand double", winning both the points and times formats; he did so in 2005 at the IBSF World Billiards Championships and in 2008 at the Bangalore Championships.
In chess (the game believed to have originated from India), the current World Champion is an Indian national as well - Vishwanathan Anand.
The Indian national cricket team may have won the One Day International (ODI) World Cup only once, but if cricket was to be included in the Olympics, the twenty-twenty format would be used and India won the inaugural T-20 World Cup tournament. Furthermore, at present, India ranks as the number one team in test matches and number two in ODIs.
Force India, the team owned by the Indian entrepreneur Vijay Mallya, is a top 5 team in Formula 1 and was transformed by the Indian from the Spyker Team, which had never ever achieved a single point. Furthermore, in the form of Karun Chandhok, we have an Indian driver in the championship.
Dating back to the 2006 Asian Games, the Indian men's golf team won silver and Jeev Milkha Singh, who currently stands at a world ranking of 36, has won titles from all over.
These facts firstly underline the fact that to judge the quality of India's performances in sports through their performance in the Olympics is unfair. Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world, and golf is the most popular solo sport in the world. Without the inclusion of such big name sports in the Olympics, it isn't right to judge India's performance at the games.
Secondly, I believe that a country's sporting prowess should be analyzed based on their level at the biggest sports in the world, meaning, their rank at the world's most popular sports. Also a country's sporting level should be assessed based on the number of sports they excel at.
Thus, without further ado, I should have convinced you that India is a sporting powerhouse because, in cricket and golf - extremely popular sports - India is among the dominating nations.
Nevertheless, I will provide you with more information, for those of you who still don't believe me.
Some rankings to begin with:
The most popular sport in the world is football and India is 132nd in the world and 21st in Asia according to the FIFA world rankings. As for hockey, the third biggest sport in the world, India is ranked 10th. In volleyball, arguably the fifth most popular sport, India ranks in at 27th in the world and 5th in Asia. In basketball, India is 52nd in the world and 10th in Asia, a sport which is the tenth most viewed. 80th is the position held by the country in the International Rugby Board world rankings.
India continues to develop and progress in other team sports as well.
In baseball, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel of India have been selected to play for the Pittsburg Pirates in major league baseball. Furthermore, Kabbadi, a team contact sport, is played by thirty-one countries, and "India is the powerhouse in the world of Kabbadi". In all four Asian games they participated in they won gold and attained the world championship title in 2007.
Moreover, India's strength remains in individual sports. Tennis, the most popular individual sport, is a hub for Indian talent. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi who have won numerous doubles titles together, and are one of the greatest, if not the greatest doubles team to set foot on this planet. In addition, Sania Mirza had cracked the top 30 in the WTA ranking. Furthermore, the former junior world number 1 and current Australian Open junior singles champion is Indian - Yuki Bambri. Somdev Devvarman is another emerging player and sits just outside the top 200 in the ATP rankings.
India's dominance through its individual athletes is well respected in its new badminton sensation who now holds the number 2 ranking in the sport, Saina Nehwal. Other impressive Indian sportspersons are the notable Olympic trio of Vijender Kumar, Sushil Kumar and Abhinav Bindra. Vijender Kumar won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is the current world number 1 in the middleweight class of boxing. Sushil Kumar is a wrestler in the freestyle 66 kg category and he claimed a bronze medal as well at the last games. Bindra was the standout performer for India at the games and won gold in the Men's 10m Air Rifle.
Another Indian faction, this time of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar, arrowed' their way to gold for India in the World Cup Archery (stage 2). Lastly, the lone significant Indian table tennis player is Sharath Kamal, who is just outside the top 50 in the world.
Of the top 10 most popular sports in the world, India is a force to be reckoned with in at least five. Producing many top 10 players in the world and many individual medalists, India doesn't receive the acclaim it deserves. These two statistics should attest their strength and neglect any doubts you had about India's surge in the 21st Century in the sporting world.
Now you, nor anyone else, should ever be able to declare that India is athletically futile.
India a sports
By Kartik Das
There are many common misconceptions about the correlation between India and sports. People feel that India is an irrelevant sporting nation. It may be true that India doesn't have a sports culture that runs deep into its history but no one should doubt the success of the nation in the 21st century. Looking and examining at how adept a country is at sports compared to another can be very difficult; however, it is simple and straightforward to dissect a country's sporting prowess individually.
And that's exactly what I have here.
One way to judge a country's sporting level could be to analyze its Olympic performances.
Dating back to the Games of the II Olympiad (1990 Summer Olympics), India finished 19th - its best ever finish. That may seem impressive, but don't forget only 25 teams competed in that international multi-sport event.
Close to present, India has achieved the rankings of 71st, 71st, 65th and 50th at the 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics respectively. These results seem ordinary and they are, but again, they're misleading.
The Olympics doesn't include snooker, billiards, chess, cricket, formula one and golf. These are events in which India has a very good chance to win a medal and even gold. If these sports were included in the previous Olympics and India had picked up gold or even some other medals, the country would have been catapulted into the top 30 by the end of each of those Olympics - going to show the incongruous relationship between India's sporting level and its Olympic performance.
Firstly, I will reason why India could beat any other country at those five sports - all of which are more popular than some current Olympic sports.
At billiards and snooker, our Indian star, Pankaj Advani, is a World Champion. Only he has ever achieved the "grand double", winning both the points and times formats; he did so in 2005 at the IBSF World Billiards Championships and in 2008 at the Bangalore Championships.
In chess (the game believed to have originated from India), the current World Champion is an Indian national as well - Vishwanathan Anand.
The Indian national cricket team may have won the One Day International (ODI) World Cup only once, but if cricket was to be included in the Olympics, the twenty-twenty format would be used and India won the inaugural T-20 World Cup tournament. Furthermore, at present, India ranks as the number one team in test matches and number two in ODIs.
Force India, the team owned by the Indian entrepreneur Vijay Mallya, is a top 5 team in Formula 1 and was transformed by the Indian from the Spyker Team, which had never ever achieved a single point. Furthermore, in the form of Karun Chandhok, we have an Indian driver in the championship.
Dating back to the 2006 Asian Games, the Indian men's golf team won silver and Jeev Milkha Singh, who currently stands at a world ranking of 36, has won titles from all over.
These facts firstly underline the fact that to judge the quality of India's performances in sports through their performance in the Olympics is unfair. Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world, and golf is the most popular solo sport in the world. Without the inclusion of such big name sports in the Olympics, it isn't right to judge India's performance at the games.
Secondly, I believe that a country's sporting prowess should be analyzed based on their level at the biggest sports in the world, meaning, their rank at the world's most popular sports. Also a country's sporting level should be assessed based on the number of sports they excel at.
Thus, without further ado, I should have convinced you that India is a sporting powerhouse because, in cricket and golf - extremely popular sports - India is among the dominating nations.
Nevertheless, I will provide you with more information, for those of you who still don't believe me.
Some rankings to begin with:
The most popular sport in the world is football and India is 132nd in the world and 21st in Asia according to the FIFA world rankings. As for hockey, the third biggest sport in the world, India is ranked 10th. In volleyball, arguably the fifth most popular sport, India ranks in at 27th in the world and 5th in Asia. In basketball, India is 52nd in the world and 10th in Asia, a sport which is the tenth most viewed. 80th is the position held by the country in the International Rugby Board world rankings.
India continues to develop and progress in other team sports as well.
In baseball, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel of India have been selected to play for the Pittsburg Pirates in major league baseball. Furthermore, Kabbadi, a team contact sport, is played by thirty-one countries, and "India is the powerhouse in the world of Kabbadi". In all four Asian games they participated in they won gold and attained the world championship title in 2007.
Moreover, India's strength remains in individual sports. Tennis, the most popular individual sport, is a hub for Indian talent. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi who have won numerous doubles titles together, and are one of the greatest, if not the greatest doubles team to set foot on this planet. In addition, Sania Mirza had cracked the top 30 in the WTA ranking. Furthermore, the former junior world number 1 and current Australian Open junior singles champion is Indian - Yuki Bambri. Somdev Devvarman is another emerging player and sits just outside the top 200 in the ATP rankings.
India's dominance through its individual athletes is well respected in its new badminton sensation who now holds the number 2 ranking in the sport, Saina Nehwal. Other impressive Indian sportspersons are the notable Olympic trio of Vijender Kumar, Sushil Kumar and Abhinav Bindra. Vijender Kumar won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is the current world number 1 in the middleweight class of boxing. Sushil Kumar is a wrestler in the freestyle 66 kg category and he claimed a bronze medal as well at the last games. Bindra was the standout performer for India at the games and won gold in the Men's 10m Air Rifle.
Another Indian faction, this time of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar, arrowed' their way to gold for India in the World Cup Archery (stage 2). Lastly, the lone significant Indian table tennis player is Sharath Kamal, who is just outside the top 50 in the world.
Of the top 10 most popular sports in the world, India is a force to be reckoned with in at least five. Producing many top 10 players in the world and many individual medalists, India doesn't receive the acclaim it deserves. These two statistics should attest their strength and neglect any doubts you had about India's surge in the 21st Century in the sporting world.
Now you, nor anyone else, should ever be able to declare that India is athletically futile.
India a sports
