some minor surprises fuelled by my biases

1. Ten Greatest Indian
Sportspersons

2. 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)

3. 1. Dhyanchand
Lets not argue on this
one
„The Magician‟
3 consecutive Olympic
medals
33 goals in 12 Olympic
matches

4. 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

5. 3. Sachin Tendulkar
Darling of the nation
Exemplary character
throughout his career
Owns most batting
records

6. 4. Vishwanathan
Anand
Along with Narayan
Moorthy, Inspired a
generation of Indian
geeks who think they
rule the world

7. 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

8. 6. Balbir Singh Sr
In my mind, the 2nd
greatest Indian hockey
player
Super centre forward
3 Olympic golds
Still holds record of
max goals in an
Olympic final

9. 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

10. 8. Prakash Padukone
Former world No 1
Winner of England and
the World Cup
First Indian to excel in
this sport that
originated in India
Special thanks for not forcing his
daughter to follow in his footsteps

11. 9. Geet Sethi
5 time world professional billiards champion
Raised the profile of the sport in India

12. 10 Maria Irudayam
Two 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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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…