Ten Greatest Indian Sportspersons

Criteria

Dominance of the sport on the global stage

Not more than two person from the same sport can make it to the list (else this list will have too many cricketers and hockey players)

1. Dhyanchand

Lets not argue on this one

‘The Magician’3 consecutive Olympic

medals33 goals in 12 Olympic

matches

2. Kapil Dev

Everyone wanted to be Kapil

Blistering batting and a feared bowler

Fuelled the cricket craze in India

Kapil’s Devils won the cup when no one expected them to

3. Sachin Tendulkar

Darling of the nationExemplary character

throughout his careerOwns most batting

records

4. Vishwanathan Anand

Along with Narayan Moorthy, Inspired a generation of Indian geeks who think they rule the world

5 Mary Kom

5 time world champion

Inspiring tale of a mother of two who moved up a weight class to win an Olympic medal for India

6. Balbir Singh Sr

In my mind, the 2nd greatest Indian hockey player

Super centre forward3 Olympic goldsStill holds record of

max goals in an Olympic final

7. Lee- Hesh, the Indian Express

Even if they don’t talk to each other, their names belong together

Between them, they hold 23 doubles grand slam titles

Only three titles as a team

8. Prakash Padukone

Former world No 1Winner of England and

the World CupFirst Indian to excel in

this sport that originated in India

Special thanks for not forcing his daughter to follow in his footsteps

9. Geet Sethi

5 time world professional billiards champion

Raised the profile of the sport in India

10 Maria IrudayamTwo time world carrom champ, 9 time

national champ

Before you ask me why not a kabaddi player, carrom is played and followed by many more than is kabaddi

Near Misses

Saina Nehwal & Koneru Humpy – both have been the world number 2. Though it can be easliy argued that a badminton or chess world number 2 trumps a world number 1 carrom player.

Leslie Claudius, AjitPal Singh & Roop Singh – Great players but just lost out to Balbir Singh in my opinion

Others

Dhanraj Pillai & Mohd Shahid – On their day they were the best, but in a team sport, India was just not getting it done

Gama Pehelwan – Just did not have the worldwide recognition

Mir Sultan Khan & Moheshchunder Bannerjee – The former was called the “greatest natural chess player of modern times” and the latter pioneered a class of chess openings called Indian defence.

Not considered

Pankaj Advani – 2 time billiards world champ but never broken into top 50 in world snooker. Billiards is too niche to have two players on this list

PT Usha – Did well in Seoul Asiad but not exactly the world stage

Milkha Singh – 4th position in three Olympic tries is not upto the mark in this list

Rahul Gandhi - exceptional marksman but still…