India is a nation which has always been fascinated by team sports. India is still to find its feat in International sports arena. It has a tendency not to perform well at the big international stages and that is the major problem why India is not able to compete with the rest of the world. Be it Olympics or World Championships, India has not had a good record in them.

But, in the recent past there have been some players who have taken India to maximum glory. Players from India have started performing at the international level. Cricket is a sport in which India has a very good team and is the world champions as well, but the problem is that the sport is played in only 10-12 countries and the rest of the countries don’t even know about it. 

The good change that is happening in this cricket loving nation is that people have started to relate with other sports, now people know how difficult and important it is to bring an Olympic medal and to win a world championship is.

Let’s have a look at some of the best sportsperson that India has produced in the past two decades.

Vishwanathan Anand: The first grandmaster of India has literally introduced the nation to the game of chess. Anand won the World Chess Championship for five times in the year 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. He is also the undisputed chess champion from the past five years and is also one among the few players to stay in top 3 from the last 20 years.

Sachin Tendulkar: He is considered to be the best batsmen ever to pick up a bat in the world. Sachin has virtually all the batting records. He recently became the first batsman to score 100 international century. He also has scored the maximum numbers of runs in both one-dayers and Test matches. He has scored centuries in every part of the world and against every opponent.

Abhinav Bindra: People die to win an Olympic medal and this shooter provided India maximum glory when he won the gold in Beijing Olympics in 2008. He by winning the medal became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games. It was the first gold medal for India after the gap of 28 years. He is also the current world champion in Air Rifle shooting. He is also the youngest recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards. He has achieved tremendous heights in shooting and will once again be the prime contender to bring a medal for India in the upcoming London Olympics.

Leander Paes: Indian tennis is synonymous to Leander Paes.  He is a synergy of mental and physical strength and is still going strong at 39. Leander Paes has been playing professional tennis from the past 21 years and has won 49 doubles career titles. He has won 13 Grand Slam titles (including both doubles and mixed doubles) and who can forget the bronze medal that he won for India in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Leander started his Davis Cup career when he was 16 years old in the year 1990, has never looked back. He has an overall record of 86–31 and has played a pivotal role in India’s Davis Cup campaign from the past so many years.    

Sushil Kumar: Sushil Kumar made the entire nation proud with his efforts in the Beijing Olympics. He won the bronze medal in the Men's 66kg Freestyle Wrestling event by defeating Leonid Spiridonov from Kazakhstan. There have been  instance where a player has faded after the Olympic glory but that is not the case with Sushil. In 2010, Sushil Kumar became the first Indian wrestler to win a world championship title. He also won a gold medal in Commonwealth Games in the same year. He achieved a rare feat by winning his match in a record 9 seconds in the semifinal match in the Commonwealth Games. Sushil has once again qualified for the Olympics and the whole nation is expecting big things from this hard working individual.  


By Indian Sports News Network