India as a nation of vast human resources is yet to fulfill its potential in the world of sports.
The resurgence in the sports arena as manifested in the past couple of decades is still far short of international standards. The country’s objective in the long-term must be to forge ahead with planned progress to attain eminence in world sports.India had a rich tradition of supremacy in sports and games down the ages. The epics and history recount the heroic deeds in archery, wrestling, sword-fighting and other contests displayed by our legendary stalwarts. But waves of invasions and long years of foreign domination decimated this legacy of skill and prowess.
Even so, there have been instances of India’s wrestlers like Gama and his brother Imam Bux who had floored the champions of other lands. More recently, Dara Singh, the world free-style champion, had the upper hand over the fabulous King Kong and others.India’s sportsmen and women have won laurels at the Asian and Commonwealth competitions. But with the lone exception of hockey they have failed to attain international standards at the Olympics and world meets.
Even the hockey crown has slipped out of India’s hands in recent years.India cast its spell of hockey supremacy over a period beyond three decades. The sports-minded European and other nations subsequently caught up with the Indian techniques. With partition Pakistan emerged as a formidable rival in the sub-continent itself.
Earlier, between the Amsterdam Olympiad in 1928 and the Rome Games in 1960 India had a monopolistic hold on the World’s hockey crown.HockeyThe name of the ‘Hockey Wizard’ Dhyan Chand is synonymous with the golden era of India’s supremacy in the game. The legendary feats of the superstar place him in the niche as the all-time brightest exponent of the vigorous game. No one anywhere has equaled him as the world’s foremost hockey centre-forward.
He spearheaded the all-conquering Indian hockey contingent from 1928 upto India’s historic triumph at Berlin in 1936 when he mesmerized the audience with his magic touch.CricketIn cricket, similarly before independence, the names of two all-time greats, C.K. Nayudu and the redoubtable all-rounder Amar Singh lead the rest in the game’s roll-call of honour.
To the great "C.K." belongs the distinction of having been India’s first captain at the country’s baptism into Test cricket at Lord’s in 1932. His innings of 116 runs with 11 sixes against the MCC at Lahore in 1933 remained a world record for over two decades. Nayudu was "Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year" – 1933.
Amar Singh was "a Kingpin" of Indian cricket in its infancy. "He came off the pitch like the "crack of doom", said England’s Wally Hammond. He was fearless hitter of the ball and a prolific scorer. England’s media commented that Amar Singh was the best pace bowler seen in England for some time.
Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, Mushtaq Ali and Lala Amarnath were among the notable cricketers of the period. Amarnath was India’s first centurion on Test debut. That was against Doug Jardine’s formidable England team in 1934. Cricket has acquired mass popularity in India as a spectator sport. This accounts for the stress on India’s notable achievements in the game.The year 1971 marked the turn of the tide for India with greater success in international cricket.
The year saw India’s twin triumphs against the mighty West Indies and England in Tests played on their soil. The period was notable for the unparalleled ascendancy of the Indian spin quartet of E.S. Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrashekar, Bishan Singh Bedi and S. Venkataraghavan.
India rose to the position of cricket’s unofficial world champions by dint of the victory against the hitherto invincible West Indies in the final at Lord’s in 1983. This feat of "Kapil’s Devils" was hailed as India’s biggest triumph. Kapil Dev with his record of over 5000 runs and in sight of 440 wickets in Tests emerged as the world’s best all-rounder. He was recently honoured as Wisden’s "Indian" Cricketer of the century. India also had the distinction of holding both the bowling and batting records in Test Cricket. Kapil’s record of Test wickets and Sunil Gavaskar’s 34 Test hundreds were unexcelled for about 10 years.
Kapil’s record was later eclipsed by the Caribbean, Courtney Walsh’s haul of 519 wickets.Sachin Tendulkar – rated as the best contemporary batsmen, had already scored 31 Test hundreds. Sachin has compiled the maximum of over 11,540 runs in one-day-international.After the World Cup triumph in 1983, India also won the World Cup "Champions of Champions" Trophy and The Benson and Hedges Championship in Australia in 1985. The success of our cricketers in the Nat-West Trophy competition in England against South Africa and Australia in the ICC Champion Trophy in Colombo followed by the 2-0 Test victory against the West Indies tourists are among the other recent achievements of the Indian team.
These have been clouded by defeat at the hands of the New Zealand team during the just concluded tour. There were however, a few redeeming features like the emergence of the young Virender Sehwag as a dashing batting hero. He has hit up hundreds both in Tests and in one-dayers against the best bowlers.TennisThe majestic game of Tennis is among the major sports at which Indians have fared well enough to be in world class.
Ramanathan Krishnan reached the Wimbledon semi-finals twice. He and Vijay Amrithraj were world class players. Both Krishnan and his son Ramesh had the distinction of winning the Wimbledon Juniors titles. In recent years, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won two Grand Slam titles. Mahesh with his partners from Japan, Russia and Belarus has won two Grand Slam titles including the Wimbledon in the mixed doubles and the men’s doubles at the US Open championship.
BadmintonIn the other court game, Badminton, India so far had a record of only three players in the highest international level. First, it was Nandu Natekar in the 1950’s and 60’s. Natekar was the first Indian to win a title abroad. He was the Men’s Singles Champion in the Selangor International Tournament in Kuala Lumpur in 1956. Six years later he and Meena Shaw annexed the Mixed Doubles title at Bangkok’s King’s Cup International Tournament.
He won the Men’s Singles title at the Tournament the following year.Then came Prakash Padukone who won the Danish and Swedish Opens on the European circuit in 1979 followed by success in winning the Master’s Tournament title at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In 1980 – he became the first Indian to accomplish the epic feat of winning The All-England Championship beating King, the reigning champion for two years. After a gap of two decades P.
Gopichand became the Second Indian to annex the All-England title.BilliardsIn the top-of-the table games of Billiards and Snooker, India has had a handful of champions. Wilson Jones won the World Billiards Crown twice in 1953 in Calcutta and eleven years later in Auckland. Michael Ferreira regained the crown for India in 1977 and again after six years. He also performed the ‘Double’ by winning both the World Amateur and Professional titles.
Geet Sethi followed in the footsteps of Ferreira, while Arvind Savur and Yasin Merchant have been at the top in Snooker.OlympicsAt the Olympic Games it has been a bleak blank for India all these years. It was only the ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh among men and the ‘Sprint Queen’ P.T. Usha and Shiny Wilson among women who had reached World Class levels, but without winning any medals.
The woman weight lifter Karnam Malleshwari secured the solitary medal for India at the Sydney Olympics, three years ago. She won the Bronze – and hopefully was the precursor of more honours for the country in the years to come!A chronicle of India’s sports excellence should also include the swimming feats of Mihir Sen, a dauntless and most renowned long-distance swimmer. He was the first in the world to swim the ‘seven seas’. Mihir Sen undertook and completed six of these swimming feats, all in a year in 1966!
