New Champions Of Indian Sports

For a long time Indian Sports relied on just one sport for their entertainment. After Independence nearly for 3-4 decades it was hockey. Then in 1983 the Indian cricket tem won the World Cup and coincidentally the Indian Hockey started declining. From then on for us the Indians sporting heroes only meant cricketers making big names.

But in the last few years it all seemed to be changing. It all started in 1996 when Leander Peas won a bronze medal in Olympics for India.  He then continued his good work in doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi. In last few years that mantle has been passed on to Sania Mirza and alongwith cricket and hockey (which always bursts into kife for very short span) tennis appeared a sport where Indians started to make news around the world. Then in last couple of years boxing started taking bigger strides with India having a youth world champion in this sport. Many Indian boxers also started earning some medals in some prestiguous events.

All along this while badminton remained a sport that is often neglected coz of not having much winners or top class players in the country.Well there were some successes like P Gopi Chand’s All England title that would have brought interest in this sport but somehow BAI failed to capitalise on these successes. What needed was a constant winner who could win tournammnets at a regular basis. We had Prakash Padukonewho was No.1 player but that was along time ago.( and I am not able to judge the effect of  his wins as I was not present in this world at that time ). But now we have Saina Nehwal who yesterday wonIndonesia Super series, the first Indian women to win a Super Series event.(if I am not wrong,) Well A big win and she is winning such big events consistently. And her ranking is testimonial to it. She is Ranked No.8 in the world and after this win would be ranked No.6 as reported in TOI.

Well for me definitely a new champion arrived on the horizon for Indian sports.