Ten greatest Indian sportspersons
- 2. 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)
- 3. 1. Dhyanchand Lets not argue on this one „The Magician‟ 3 consecutive Olympic medals 33 goals in 12 Olympic matches
- 4. 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
- 5. 3. Sachin Tendulkar Darling of the nation Exemplary character throughout his career Owns most batting records
- 6. 4. Vishwanathan Anand Along with Narayan Moorthy, Inspired a generation of Indian geeks who think they rule the world
- 7. 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
- 8. 6. Balbir Singh Sr In my mind, the 2nd greatest Indian hockey player Super centre forward 3 Olympic golds Still holds record of max goals in an Olympic final
- 9. 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
- 10. 8. Prakash Padukone Former world No 1 Winner of England and the World Cup First Indian to excel in this sport that originated in India Special thanks for not forcing his daughter to follow in his footsteps
- 11. 9. Geet Sethi 5 time world professional billiards champion Raised the profile of the sport in India
- 12. 10 Maria Irudayam Two 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
- 13. 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
- 14. 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.
- 15. 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…