Sports Achievements – Few and Far Post Independence

Article dated August 25, 2007

Ever since India first appeared on the International Hockey field, India ruled the roost with six consecutive gold medals in Olympics. Their first loss came in the 1960 Olympics, thirty-two years after it had played its first match. During this phase India played 30 matches and won them all, scoring 197 goals and conceding only eight, an astonishing feat in any sport.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, India beat Hitler’s Nordic Superman 8-1 with Dhyan Chand, the greatest hockey player India has ever produced, scored six goals playing barefoot. During this period the British avoided playing India in the fear of losing to one of its colonies, such was the supremacy India held pre-independence.

On the contrary, the absence of an individual Olympic gold medal to its credit despite a population in excess of billion is the sad state of affairs in Indian sports as the country steps into the 60th year of its independence.

Indian sports has faced severe dearth in terms of achievements since independence. The victories were a few and far between two in both individual and team sports. The performance on the international arena went down drastically, resulting in lack of inspiration for many to take up sports as a career option. Adding to the anguish of those who dared to take up sports are the sub-standard sporting facilities and lack of sponsorships thus making their life harder.

Amid all this, a few Indians were valiant to break the shackles to make it into the big league. A few prominent names are ‘flying sikh’ Milka Singh who almost pulled off a medal in 1960 and the sprint queen P.T Usha missing out a medal in 1984 Olympics.

Post independence India only managed three individual bronze medals at Olympics – wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav in 1952, tennis star Leander Paes in 1996 and weightlifter Karnam Malleswari in 2000.

In Non-Olympic sports like chess we have a world champion in Vishwanathan Anand who is still ranked number one in the world and other like Koneru Humpy, K. Sasikiran are doing India proud. Golf, has produced some credible performers in Jyoti Randhawa, Arjun Atwal and Jeev Milka Singh. The game of Squash has unearthed some raw talent in Joshna Chinappa and Sourav Goshal, both having the distinction of winning the British Junior Open under-19 title and now are ranked among the top 50 in the world.

Pankaj Advani has made waves in Billiards by winning the world Championship in 2005. The other big names include Wilson Jones, Michael Ferreira and Geet Sethi.

Of late shooting has done India proud, a high of which was achieved in 2004 Athens Olympics when Rajyavardan Singh Rathore won the lone silver for India. Jaspal Rana, Abhinav Brinda and Anjali Bagwat had their fair share of success. Samresh Jung topped the headlines bagging five gold medals in the 2006 Commonwealth games held at Melbourne. Another consistent performer Manavjit Singh has now won the country’s most prestigious sports award - the Khel Ratna.

Hockey, considered being the national game has an awful track record, managing just five gold medals since independence. This includes a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics.

On the other hand, right from the day it was introduced in India by the British, this game has gained non-stopping popularity and has successfully reached the heart and soul of every Indian. Cricket in India is a religion. The nation’s mood swings between two extremes when it comes to cricket.

Cricket is the only sport where Indians were able to compete with the best in the world consistently in the last six decades. This is the only sport that has given the people of India something to cheer about, though they have managed to win only one World Cup way back in 1983 under Kapil Dev. Still there are many sweet memories that will come to one’s mind when you dig deep.

In 1951-52 India tasted their first Test match victory against England at Chepauk. Pankaj Roy and Polly Umigar were the stars scoring centuries for India in the first innings setting up innings victory.

Then India waited for nearly two decades before scoring their first series win in test cricket. Sunil Gavaskar, in his debut series scored a mammoth 774 runs in four test matches including a double century. The series victory on the English soil was set up by an outstanding spin bowling from B S Chandrasekar who ran through the England line-up at the Oval test taking 6 for 38. Both the series wins coming under the leadership of Ajit Wadekar.

In 1976, India successfully chased a record fourth innings total then, target of 406 against West Indies at Port of Spain. Thanks to centuries from Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath.

In the 1980s apart from winning the World Cup, they also won the World Series Championship in Australia in 1985 under Gavaskar’s captaincy. The 1990s saw India emerging the financial power house of world cricket, also hosting the 1996 World Cup. This decade also saw the emergence of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, who is today being hero-worshiped by many!

Under aggressive captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, India reached the finals of 2003 World Cup, won its first test and ODI series wins in Pakistan. At the same time how can one forget the Kolkata test match against Australians in 2001 – an incredible test win. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid’s innings was an epic, so was Harbajan’s magic with the ball.

On the other hand, with the raising of Sania Mirza, India’s presence in world tennis gained significance after the celebrated Indian doubles pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bupathi.

It was not only tennis that saw a surge but also Formula One. The appearance of the fast and the furious Narian Kathikeyan in the racing circuit in 2005 saw many young Indians taking up this sport.

The Indian cricket team gifted Indians the Independence gift of winning the test series in England after a hiccup of 21 years making the Indian tricolor to fly high.

Overall in sixty years of independence, Indian sports have underachieved for various reasons. The worrying truth is that things don’t look pink, at least in the near future though the country’s officials are dreaming of hosting the biggest sporting event on earth in its soil one day.