Ten Greatest Indian Sportspersons
Criteria
Dominance of the sport on the global stage
Not more than two person from the same sport can make it to the list (else this list will have too many cricketers and hockey players)
1. Dhyanchand
Lets not argue on this one
‘The Magician’3 consecutive Olympic
medals33 goals in 12 Olympic
matches
2. Kapil Dev
Everyone wanted to be Kapil
Blistering batting and a feared bowler
Fuelled the cricket craze in India
Kapil’s Devils won the cup when no one expected them to
3. Sachin Tendulkar
Darling of the nationExemplary character
throughout his careerOwns most batting
records
4. Vishwanathan Anand
Along with Narayan Moorthy, Inspired a generation of Indian geeks who think they rule the world
5 Mary Kom
5 time world champion
Inspiring tale of a mother of two who moved up a weight class to win an Olympic medal for India
6. Balbir Singh Sr
In my mind, the 2nd greatest Indian hockey player
Super centre forward3 Olympic goldsStill holds record of
max goals in an Olympic final
7. Lee- Hesh, the Indian Express
Even if they don’t talk to each other, their names belong together
Between them, they hold 23 doubles grand slam titles
Only three titles as a team
8. Prakash Padukone
Former world No 1Winner of England and
the World CupFirst Indian to excel in
this sport that originated in India
Special thanks for not forcing his daughter to follow in his footsteps
9. Geet Sethi
5 time world professional billiards champion
Raised the profile of the sport in India
10 Maria IrudayamTwo time world carrom champ, 9 time
national champ
Before you ask me why not a kabaddi player, carrom is played and followed by many more than is kabaddi
Near Misses
Saina Nehwal & Koneru Humpy – both have been the world number 2. Though it can be easliy argued that a badminton or chess world number 2 trumps a world number 1 carrom player.
Leslie Claudius, AjitPal Singh & Roop Singh – Great players but just lost out to Balbir Singh in my opinion
Others
Dhanraj Pillai & Mohd Shahid – On their day they were the best, but in a team sport, India was just not getting it done
Gama Pehelwan – Just did not have the worldwide recognition
Mir Sultan Khan & Moheshchunder Bannerjee – The former was called the “greatest natural chess player of modern times” and the latter pioneered a class of chess openings called Indian defence.
Not considered
Pankaj Advani – 2 time billiards world champ but never broken into top 50 in world snooker. Billiards is too niche to have two players on this list
PT Usha – Did well in Seoul Asiad but not exactly the world stage
Milkha Singh – 4th position in three Olympic tries is not upto the mark in this list
Rahul Gandhi - exceptional marksman but still…
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