Popular Sports in India

Hockey is the official sport in India. However soccer and cricket are the two most popular sports in India. There are also other traditional sports like kho kho and kabbadi that are quite popular and are even played in the national and international levels. India has excelled in sports since the time of the Vedas. Even in the great Indian epics we get to know about the sport activities of India. All the sports in India are played by both men and women and have earned fame for their country. Cricket is considered to be the most popular sports in India although hockey is the official sport of the country. Cricket became the popular sports from 17th century and still persists to be the most popular sports of the country. India won the cricket world cup in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev. India also won the ICC Twenty20 world championship, a new form of cricket, in 2007 under captaincy of MS Dhoni. India also boasts in winning the World Championship of Cricket under the captaincy of Sunil Gavaskar in 1985.

Hockey is recognized as the official sport of India. India had been one of the top most names in hockey till the middle of 20th century. India also holds the record for winning gold medals in the Olympic games for 8 times. India also won the 1975 World Cup. India also became the runner up in the World Cup championship in 1973. One of the most notable names in Indian Hockey is Major Dhyanchand. India has also won the Asia in 2007.

Kabaddi is also noted among popular sports in India. This is also one of the traditional games in India. India really excels in Kabaddi and has bagged many awards. India won the gold medal in World cup and Asian Games for men held in 2006.

Badminton is one of the most popular sports in India. Badminton is played by both children and adult specially during the winter months. Some of the notable names associated with badminton in India are or Prakash Padukone as well as Pullela Gopichand. Both of them bagged the All England Badminton championship and have earned fame and name for themselves as well as for their country. Saina Nehwal is one of the emerging badminton players in India.

Chess is one of the oldest sports in India. India has produced several grandmasters over the years. Famous chess personalities in India include Vishwanathan Anand, Parimarjan Negi, Koneru Humpy are only a few names to add on the list.

Football is another popular sports in India. Although introduced by the British, there are many clubs and teams apart from the national team that play football. One of the major championship won by India in football in the Nehru cup championship.

Boxing is not so much popular sports in India although India have own medals in the Commonwealth Games as well as the Asian Games. Notable Indian boxers are Kalpana Chaudhary, Sarita Devi, Aruna Mishra.

Formula One is another sports though dominated once by the western countries, India is gaining popularity day by day. The one name that is associated with Formula One is Narain Karthikeyan.

Other popular sports in India include long tennis, table tennis, golf, billiards, archery and so on.