Friday
Apr162010
Anand the Greatest Indian Sportsman of all Time?
Friday, April 16, 2010 at 2:14PM I don't know much about Indian sports history, but it still seems surprising that a chess player would rank #1 on such a list. Still, it's great that Viswanathan Anand even made the All Sports Magazine list, and that he was their number one is even more impressive. Congratulations to the world champion on another success!
More info here.
Reader Comments (5)
Hi,
A bit of background might be helpful. The "official" national sport of India is hockey (field hockey); and India has had a great deal of success in the Olympics in that game in the past. Indian hockey is presently not top class; and is unlikely to be a serious contendor at the top level. Indian sport is today dominated by cricket. And if cricket is religion in India, Sachin Tendulkar is GOD. It is hard to imagine the popularity Tendulkar enjoys. And while undoubtedly 'popular' is far from 'great', Sachin Tendulkar has a justified claim to be ranked as greatest too - those unaware of cricket can check up his records on cricinfo or wikipedia. Be that as it may, if one were to make a list of nominees for "greatest Indian sportsperson", there would be Sachin Tendulkar, and tens of other cricketers, and... well... maybe 3 or 4 others. And in those 3 or 4 others, Anand would be prominent. Anand is revered in India not just for being world champion, but also for lasting at the topmost level for well more than a decade - closer to two decades I would say. Not many sportsmen in India can claim that. And Anand's humility also makes him - in the eyes of an Indian sports fan - great. And what his achievements have done is that they have focussed popular as well as critical attention on non-cricket sports. In that, given the cricket-starved nature of the average Indian, may well be one of the reasons why Anand is the greatest. To a person unaquainted with Indian cricket, it might be hard to imagine. But the way Anand has gradually eroded the cricket-mania - and it is a good thing that he did so, too (as to why it is 'good' and for whom it is 'good', a separate debate may be essential) - is in a word phenomenal.
As an aside, don't read too much into these rankings - the "All Sports MAgazine" is virtually unknown in India..!
A little off topic. Given that I keep hearing how popular Anand is in India, it is odd to me that there was no bid for the WCC match from India. I wonder if the stories behind the scene regarding this, if any, will be revealed after the match.
I can attest the Sachin Tendulkar mania. I used to sponsor a beginning-of-term excursion to the Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball team for the new grad students, most hailing from India. To have a block of 50-odd fans yelling "..sssssssss...Sachiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!.." turned quite a few heads! For a chessplayer to top that is phenomenal.
While Tendulkar has broken records, cricket is a team sport and India has won the cricket world cup once, in 1983. (without Tendulkar). It also won the T20 (a shorter form, like blitz) world cup in 2007 (also without Tendulkar). So I would guess the other contenders would not come from cricket but tennis - Vijay Amritraj or Leander Paes.