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Top 10 Most Popular Sports in India

10. Motorsports

Motorsports is a famous style of sport in India. Formula One was unleashed in the nation around the 2000s, with two Indian drivers challenging namely, Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok. The first-ever Grand Prix happened in 2011 in the recently made Buddh International Circuit. Armaan Ebrahim is one of the top race car drivers who went out of India and currently is racing in the FIA GT Series for the BMW Auto Service of India. Jehan Daruwala has won the British KF3 championship and is also a runner-up in two tournaments namely, CIK FIA Championship and DKM Championship.

9. Boxing

Boxing does not have much importance, but mostly because of the commentary of the missing dissemble worldwide winnings.
Even with its lack of success in worldwide championships, it is a consistent medal-holder in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. Vijender Singh claimed a bronze medal being in the middle-weight class in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, in the time being Akhil Kumar and Jitendra Kumar were able to reach the quarter-finals. Each of them earned a bronze medal in the 2008 World Championship. Vijendra Singh reached the World No. 1 in the middleweight class in 2009 and earned India’s first medal in AIBA-WBC. Mary Kom was the only Indian woman to be a six-time medal winner in each of her six world championships. She is also the only woman boxer to earn a gold medal in the 2014 Asian Games at Incheon, South Korea.

8. Athletics

The athletics sport is authorized by the Athletics Federation of India, set up in 1946. Some Indian athletes have won medals in worldwide championships. Norman Pritchard is the only Indian athlete to have achieved an Olympic medal in athletics during the non-national era. Anju Bobby George is the only woman to have won a medal in the long jump at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in the year 2003. There are three National tournaments held like the Indian National Athletic Championship, Indian Inter-State Athletics Championship and National Games of India. Milkha Singh was the first Indian athlete to earn success at a worldwide level earning a name of “The Flying Sikh” who won 200 meters/400 meters double at the Asian Games in 1958 and also concluded fourth in the 1960 Olympics.

7. Wrestling/Pehlwani

We also know this form of wrestling as kushti, which is played in Indian soil. This was a game made by the Mughal Empire by linking Persian koshti pahlevani and Indian malla-yuddha. The word in itself means Heroic Wrestling. A player of such a sport is called pehlwan. The Great Gama, namely Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt, was known to be one of the very well known and tremendous wrestlers of all time. The concept of pehlwani motivated catch wrestling which exhilarated folkstyle wrestling, freestyle wrestling and mixed martial arts.

6. Tennis

An ample amount of the Indian audience enjoys watching tennis, even if it is limited to the city areas, it is known to be one of the most famous sports. There are multiple tennis players from India who earned worldwide appreciation and made their appearance in the known tennis competitions and grand slams. The All India Tennis Association was made in 1920. The Indian Davis Cup is the most accomplished team of Davis Cup, being the runner-up 3 times. Leander Paes is a well-known Indian tennis player who won a bronze in the 1996 Summer Olympics. While another player, Mahesh Bhupathi developed into being India’s first grand slam champion. He won the mixed doubles in the French Open. The Indian female player, Sania Mirza, has earned multiple grand slam titles in doubles since the late 2000s and 2010s.

5. Badminton

Badminton is a famous sport in India controlled by the Badminton Association of India. Saina Nehwal, Srikanth Kidambi and Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, some of India’s badminton players are rated amidst the top-10 in recent BWF rankings. Prakash Padukone was the first person to accomplish the world number one spot in badminton.
At the same time, later Srikanth Kidambi made it to the top as a male player two times on April 2018.
Saina Nehwal was the first female player to earn the World No. 1 spot in April 2015.

4. Kabaddi

Kabaddi is a taction sport, which is belonging to India itself. This can be prescribed as one of the known sports in India, mostly played by individuals living in villages. India is known to have participated in four Asian Games in kabaddi and has accomplished to earn gold in all of them. There are 4 modes of kabaddi playable in India namely Amar, Suranjeevi, hututtoo and Gaminee. Suranjeevi is mostly used in the Asian games A league called the Pro Kabaddi league was made familiar within the year of 2014 consisting of eight franchises based on eight separate cities having players from all around the globe. Rakesh Kumar is the leader or caption of the Indian Kabaddi Team who has been rewarded the Arjuna Award. Rahul Chaudhari is also a known expert Kabaddi player who won a gold medal in the 2016 Asian Games.

3. Field Hockey

Field Hockey may be termed as the national sport of India in the Olympics. India may be called the most strong and fruitful nation for men’s hockey. India has triumphed over 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals, which is more than any team around the globe. India has also won the World Cup competition in the year 1975 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Indian women’s team earned the silver medal at the Asian Games in the year 2018, while the men’s team also won a bronze medal. Sandeep Singh, an Indian Hockey Player, is known as an ace drag-flicker who showed his potential in the match finale against France scoring 5 goals and a hat trick all from the penalty corners in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

2. Football

Football is amidst one of the most famous sports played in India, almost touching the reputation of cricket. The Indian Super League originated in the year 2013 as an unknown professional league comprising 8 teams to advertise Indian Football to its nation and around the globe. The so well known I-league is also an old football league running in India, making India one of the several nations with two totally well-known football leagues. India also has the Santosh Trophy, which is a knockout tournament amidst states and government authorities. The FIFA U-17 World Cup was anchored in India in the year 2017 is the first time India anchoring a FIFA occasion.

1. Cricket

Cricket is one of the most famous sports in India. It is played almost at every part or sector of the country itself. The Indian Cricket Team had triumphed on the Cricket World Cup twice in 1983 and 2011 respectively, The ICC World Twenty20 in 2007, The ICC Champion’s Trophy twice again once in 2013 and another a shared trophy with Sri Lanka in the year 2002. Whenever there is a cricket match, it’s found that people are glued in front of their TV sets, for keeping an account of the score. There are players from India like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Sachin Tendulkar known to be some of the best cricketers who contributed so much to the game. India also has national tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, The Deodhar Trophy and The Duleep Trophy and the BCCI handles a very well known Indian Twenty20 league, namely the Indian Premier League, which is one of the largest cricket leagues of the globe.

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