India is a country filled with diverse cultures, people, and tribes who love to play sports. It is widely known that cricket is the most popular sport out of all the Indian games. Cricket is even considered a part of their religion and culture. There are also other sports that Indians really enjoy and even trains young aspiring players to be expert in these sports.
Here are some of the most popular sport in India:
Cricket
Cricket is widely known not only in India but also around the world. This is because of the outstanding players like Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and MS Dhoni who made a big mark in the history of cricket. The India cricket team also performs well in every match series making them one of the strongest cricket teams. The popularity of cricket also sky-rocketed because of several endorsement deals offered to several Indian cricketers. Here are some of the popular Indian cricket leagues:
- Indian Premier League (IPL)
- Odisha Premier League (OPL)
- Karnataka Premier League (KPL)
- Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL)
- Maharashtra Premier League (MPL)
Badminton
Badminton is regarded as the second most played sport in India that featured popular shuttlers like Saina Nehwal, Srikanth Kidambi, and Pursala Venkata Sindhu. With the growing popularity of badminton in India, it is expected that Indian badminton players will make major bids for the top prize. When it comes to Indian badminton, Prakash Padukone is considered one of the greatest shuttlers who was able to win a gold medal in men’s singles way back in 1978 Commonwealth Games. In 1980, he was also the first player from India to achieve the World No.1 spot.
The Premier Badminton League, formerly known as the Indian Badminton League (IPL) established in 2013 is mostly administered by the Badminton Association of India. Currently, here are the active teams of this league:
- Pune 7 Aces
- Hyderabad Hunters
- Northeastern Warriors
- Bengaluru Raptors
- Chennai Superstarz
- Awadhe Warriors
- Mumbai Rockets
Kabaddi
Kabaddi is a contact team sport in which there are two opposing teams that take turns sending a ‘raider’ into the other half. A team earns a point by tackling members of the opposing team. Originating in Tamil Nadu, ancient India, it is one of the traditional Indian games that unexpectedly became popular. India also won gold medals during the Asian Games in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. Currently, India and Iran are the top Kabaddi-playing nations around the world.
Here are some of the Kabaddi leagues:
- Pro-Kabaddi League
- Kabaddi World Cup
- World Kabaddi League
Football
Football is not only the game of England, but it is also widely played in India. This is basically considered as a spectator sport in India. Currently, the Indian Football team is ranked 105 in the world. In fact, the football leagues are one of the most-awaited and most-watched leagues in India. And because of its popularity, the Indian Super League (ISL) was established and became one of the top Indian professional football leagues. What makes it unique from other football leagues is that it does not use promotions and regulations due to several financial reasons.
Here are the ten teams representing the nine different states of India:
- NorthEast United
- Odisha
- ATK
- Mumbai City
- Bengaluru
- Kerala Blasters
- Chennaiyin
- Jamshedpur
- Hyderabad
- Goa
Hockey
It might be surprising but hockey is India’s national sport that is still slowly trying to regain its golden era years ago. Hockey became India’s national sport when India’s state, Odisha wrote a letter to Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, saying that hockey should be the national sport of India. Since then, the state of Odisha has been the backbone of India’s national field hockey team.
Dhyan Chand, one of the greatest players in the history of hockey and is widely known for winning three Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932, and 1936. Hockey is mostly played in cities like Shimla, Ladakh, and Kashmir. To add to India’s success, the Indian Hockey Team is the only national men’s team of India that became a part of the International Hockey Federation.
Hockey India League (HIL) also known Coal India Hockey India League is now regarded as the professional field hockey league in India with Kalinga Lancers as its current champion. Here are the teams that are actively participating in this league:
- Uttar Pradesh Wizards
- Dabang Mumbai
- Ranchi Rays
- Delhi Waveriders
- Punjab Warriors
- Kalinga Lancers.
Tennis
Considered one of the most popular sports around the world, tennis is also played in India. Even though it is now widely-known, India has been traditionally known for producing world-class doubles players such as Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi who acquired a number of Gram Slam double titles. According to some research results, it showed that a total of 44% of Indians watch tennis at least once a week. Although it is mostly seen in the urban areas of India, it is still regarded as one of the most popular sports in India.
Here are the top 5 tennis players of India:
- Prajnesh Gunneswaran
- Ankita Raina
- Ramkumar Ramanathan
- Karman Kaur Thandi
- Yuki Bhambri
Wrestling
Regarded as one of the oldest sports in the world, wrestling also shared a long history with India. Ever since the early years, wrestling has been popular with Indians which they considered an exercise to stay physically fit. Even wrestling is considered as a professional sport in India, it still has a big difference compared to the traditional Indian style of wrestling. Sushil Kumar, one of the most successful Olympians from India received several medals during international competitions. He also carried the Indian flag during the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012. Aside from Kumar, there are other successful grapplers like Sakshi Malik, Sushil Kumar Solanki, Udey Chand, and Jatindra Charan Goho who brought pride back to the country.
Motorsports
For the longest time, the Indians are also interested in motorsports and are gaining popularity up until this day. Motorsports were able to catch the attention of the Indians when Narain Karthikeyan became the first Indian to join this sport who also signed with Jordan’s Formula One Team. Followed by Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok became the second Indian driver who signed with HRT Formula One to compete in 2011. It was also recorded that 2017 is a great year for India’s Formula One team for ranking as the fourth to finish the race. Force India also holds the record of having the highest tally scoring 187.
Basketball
As a popular sport around the world, basketball is also one of the most popular sports in India which is also played regularly sporting events or even at school. However, even if it is played almost everywhere there is a lack of involvement of Indian basketball players in international leagues. The Indian Women’s Basketball team broke the silence when they were qualified to compete in FIBA Women’s Asia Cup in Division A. It was reported that they were the only Indian basketball team to acquire this achievement.
Satnam Singh Bhamra, an Indian professional basketball player for St. John’s Edge of the National Basketball League of Canada became the first Indian player to be drafted by NBA team Dallas Mavericks.
With the popularity of these games in India, it does prove that aside from the India cricket team, players from other sports also bring victory and pride for the country.