
Image Credits: FISTO STAFF
Alike the rich cultural heritage India posses, India also has a diverse sporting culture. Being country with a huge fan base for many sports has dominated various sports over the years. By far a country that has known to be a prominent cricketing nation has also excelled in other sports and produced world class talents from time to time.
Take a look at some of the sports that India has dominated at:-
CRICKET
Cricket being one of the most played sport in the country, is undoubtedly one of the sport that India has dominated at the world level. The team that currently holds a No.1 test rank, No.2 ODI rank and No.5 T20 rankings is one of the best cricketing countries in the world. The team has also won two ICC ODI World Cups in 1983 and 2011 and a T20 World Cup in 2007.
SHOOTING
Shooting is one of the Olympic sports that India has always been a stand out at. Out of the 26 Olympic medals India bags, four of them were earned by shooters. In recent years India holds a terrific record at the ISSF word cups and the 15 Olympics Quotas to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics speaks for itself. KABBADI Kabbadi, is a sport that gained it’s origin in India, and the word Kabaddi refers to the Tamil word “Kai-pidi” which means holding hands. The sport widely played in India is even the state sport of many states. India has swept titles all the seven Kabbadi world cups and Asian games held thus far.
Read: 7 reasons why girls should play sports
CUE SPORTS
Cue Sports though not amongst one of the most popular sports in India, is surprisingly amongst one of the most successful sports in which India has sealed a lot of titles. India has an astounding number of 37 Billiards Championships and 15 Snooker championships to its name. Wilson Jones, Michael Ferraria, Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani are some of the champions the country has produced.
CHESS
India with the likes of Vishwanathan Anadh, Pentala Harikrishnan who have etched their marks at the International level has been one of the best Chess playing countries with five titles at the world Chess Championships. Chess being one of the most popular sports in Schools and Colleges is widely played in the country.
BADMINTON
Badminton is one of the most popular sports in India. India with the recent emergence of players such as P.V.Sindhu and Saina Nehwal has evolved to become one of the dominant forces of the sports. P.V. Sindhu bagged gold at the 2019 BWF World Championship and became the first Indian to do it. K.Srikanth in 2018 made it to the world No.1 spot and became the second Indian to do it after Prakash Padukone in 1980. Saina Nehwal became the first Indian women to reach the No.1 spot in the world in 2005.
WRESTLING
Wrestling, is one of the sport India excels at with five Olympic medals. With 18 medals in the World Wrestling Championships, India has produced some of the best wrestlers who are ranked at the top of is the table including Deepak Punia who is ranked No.1. Sushil Kumar who won bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Silver at the 2012 Olympics, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia are some of the other wrestlers India has produced.
Also Read: Financing and lack of social life: The issues that Athlete’s parents face