Top 5 soprts in India 2017

Author: Subrayan S

honorable mentions

Tennis, Volleyball, Golf, Kho-Kho 

above sports are played in India but not as popular as following 5 sports. 

plus we don't consider Boxing, MMA and Wrestling for this list.

5. Badminton 

Badminton was first played in India in 1800s. This game became most popular sport in India after 2012 Olympics. Indian badminton players like Sindhu,Saina and Srikanth are in top 10 rankings for more than an year. Many coaching academies were started after Saina won the 2012 Olympic medal.

Especially Indian girls loves this game. No wonder this game don't need any extra stamina like football or tennis. Badminton gave some Olympic medals to India. That's why this game earned this much popularity and fairly defeated volleyball and tennis. 

  4. Kabadi 

  This game also invented in India. India is the current number one ranked team. They won 6 world cups and all kabaddi Asian game gold medals. The only final that India lost in a kabaddi was 1993 SAF games against Pakistan. Kabaddi was not attracted by Indians before 2014. But after the pro kabaddi league this sport gained massive popularity.  

everyone loves to watch a kabadi. especially Indian villages has hard-core kabadi fans.

  3. Field Hockey 

 Hockey is India's national game. Indians playing hockey even before their Independence. Indian hockey team has won more number of hockey medals in Olympics. They won gold medals six time in a row between 1928 to 1956.

 But Indian hockey lost it's popularity to cricket after 80s. Bad performances in world cup and Olympics makes hockey as a minor sports in India. But however past few years Indian hockey started to impress Indians with live TV telecast and proper marketing. Hero Indian hockey league also helps Indian hockey to regain it's form.

2. Football 

iLeague and Indian super league are the major football leagues of India. This game is not popular in all over India. But some states takes this game too seriously. Indian football was too good in 50s and 60s.  India dominated worlds best two games(football and hockey) before 1960. But without proper management Indian football literally died after 60s. Indian team didn't played many games is the reason why downfall of Indian football. But after 2000 Indian football has started to rise. They played well in 2002 WC qualifiers.

Recently with support of Media football stared to spread all over India and India qualified for Asian cup after a long time.

   1. Cricket

The ultimate winner is cricket. You all already knows it. Indian cricket board(BCCI) is the reason why cricket is the king of the sports in India. without management no sports will survive. BCCI has skilled persons to draw and keep fans attention. Their league IPL is the one the best leagues in the world. Other sports needs to learn from BCCI to make successful and financially profit leagues. 

Because good leagues == will find better players. only cricket doing it right and other sports in India are not. Hope BCCI will help other sports to grow.  

And the reality is there is no sports in India to get as much as cricket's popularity.


Thanks for reading.