India's Leading Sports Persons

India's Leading Sports Persons

1.Kapil Dev(Cricket):
The Haryana Hurricane Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj was born on 6 January 1959 in Chandigarh. He led India to their first and only World Cup title in 1983 and was named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002. Kapil Dev made his international cricket debut against Pakistan at Faisalabad in 1978-79. When the Pakistani team returned to India for a six-Test series in 1979-80, Kapil's spectacular performance fetched him the "Man of the Series" award. He was successful in the next season in Australia too. He bagged the "Man of the Series" award against England in the home series of 1981-82 as well as the away series in 1982. He was appointed as the captain of the Indian cricket team after India's dismal performance in its tour to Pakistan in 1982. He lost the captainship in 1984 to Sunil Gavaskar, but regained it in 1985. In 1996, Kapil led India to a Test series win over England.

He was a very successful bowler too. Kapil became the second bowler ever to take 400 wickets in Test cricket in 1991. He went on to become the highest Test wicket-taker in the world in 1994, a record which was broken by Courtney Walsh in 1999. Kapil's name has entered the record books for being the only player to have scored 4,000 Test runs and taken 400 Test wickets. In 1988, Kapil become the highest wicket-taker in ODI cricket before his record was broken by Wasim Akram in 1994.

A very attacking player, he loved to take the fight to the opposition's camp. One of his most memorable innings was in a match en route to the World Cup final of 1983 when he scored 175 not out against Zimbabwe, rescuing India from a precarious position at 17/5 and finally turning the game in India's favour.

He retired from cricket in 1994 and was appointed as the coach of the Indian national cricket team in 1999, but he resigned in 2000. He was awarded the Arjuna Award for 1979-80, the Padma Shri in 1982 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991.

2.Dhyan Chand(Hockey):

India's hockey wizard, Major Dhyan Chand Singh was born on 29 August 1905 in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. The title "Chand" (Moon) was given by his first coach, who predicted that he would one day shine like the chand(Moon). His father was in the Army. Dhyan Chand also followed in the footsteps of his father when joined the army at the young age of 16.

Major Dhyan Chand Singh (August 29, 1905 – December 3, 1979) was a former Indian hockey player. He was part of the Gold winning Indian team in three Olympic Games (1928 Amsterdam, 1932 Los Angeles, 1936 Berlin). He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 1956. He got the title Chand or Moon from his first coach, Pankaj Gupta, who had predicted that he would one day shine like a Chand or Moon. Even today Dhyan Chand is the only Indian sports person who can lay claim to be the unchallenged master of a sport.

In 1928 Chand was selected to represent the Indian hockey team in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Chand helped India win the gold medal winning the finals against the Netherlands by a score of 3-0. He played in the centre-forward position and scored two of India's three goals.

In the 1932 Summer Olympics held at Los Angeles, USA, the team under Lal Shah Bukhari defended their title winning the gold. The team routed the United States hockey team 23-1, a world record that stood until 2003. He contributed eight of those goals, and along with his brother Roop Singh formed a formidable core of the team. He scored 12 goals in India's two matches in that Olympics and he had scored 133 goals out of India's 338 in that year. Dhyan Chand and Roop Singh scored 25 out of the 35 goals scored by India. This gives an indication of the havoc the two brothers caused among the defenders. They were called the 'hockey twins'.

Dhyan Chand captained the Indian team in 1936 Summer Olympics final. A crowd of 40,000 that included the Maharaja of Baroda and a large number of Indians who had travelled from all over the Continent and England had turned out to see the final battle. The audience included Adolf Hitler, and top Nazi officials like Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebells, Joachim Ribbentrop and others. India Won the finals with 8-1, of which 3 goals were scored from Dhyan Chand, 1 from Roop Singh. Impressed by his performance, Adolf Hitler supposedly offered to make Dhyan Chand a Field Marshal in the German army, but the latter refused. Chand scored 59 of India's 175 goals in the pre-Olympic matches and 11 of 38 in the Olympics.

Dhyan Chand's imposing statue at the entrance of the National Stadium (main venue of the inaugural Asian Games in 1951), One of his statues is near the India Gate, New Delhi while another has been erected in 2005 at Medak in Andhra Pradesh. One of the most touching gestures came from the residents of Vienna, Austria who built a statue of the Indian with four hands and four sticks, signifying his unparallel control over the ball.In 2002, the union sports ministry of India introduced a Lifetime Achievement Award in sports in the name of Dhyan Chand.

In 1956, The Government of India honoured him that year by conferring him the Padma Bhushan (India's third highest civilian honour).

He died in 1979. A year after his death, the Indian Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in his honour. In addition, Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi is named in his honor. 29 August, his birthday is celebrated as the National Sports Day in India.

3.Viswanathan Anand (Chess):

Viswanathan Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 for the first time after defeating Alexei Shirov 3.5 - 0.5 in the final match held at Tehran, thereby becoming the first Indian to win that title. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. With this win, he became the first player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats: Knockout, Tournament, and Match. He will next defend his title in the World Chess Championship 2009 against the winner of the challenger match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky. He had also won 2000 FIDE World Bitz Chess Championship, to become the first World blitz chess champion. He had also won 2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion, Anand won this event ahead of ten of the other top twelve players in the world, beating Kramnik in the final.

In 2007 he was awarded the second highest civilian award of India, the Padma Vibhushan. He is also the first recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991-92, India's highest sporting honour.

4.Geet Sethi(Billiards):
The Indian Billiards player who ruled the sport of billiards throughout the 1990s is none other than Geet Sethi. He created history by breaking the world record of 1276 points under the two-pot rule in the 1992 World Professional Billiards Championship. He was honored with the greatest award in sports, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1992-1993. He was also awarded the Padma Shri in 1986.

Geet Sethi was born on 17th April,1961 in New Delhi. He did his schooling from St Xavier's School, Ahmedabad and completed his college education from St Xavier's College, Ahmedabad. He has a MBA degree from BK School of Management.

He gained recognition when he won the World Amateur Billiards Championships in 1985 and 1987. He made a147-point break in snooker at the 1989 National Snooker Championships held in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. He was the first amateur to achieve this record.

He won the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1993, 1995,1998 and 2001. Side-by-side he also won three world amateur titles in 1985, 1987 and 2001.

Nowadays, he is involved in a project named the Gold Quest which aims to support sportsmen who have the potential to win in the Olympics.

5.Vijay Amritraj & Leander Paes(Tennis):
Vijay Amritraj:
Often appearing in the commentary box for Fox Sports and ESPN Star Sports, Vijay Amritraj has reigned as one of the premier tennis players in Asia for over two decades. Born in Chennai on 14th December, 1953

Amritraj achieved his first significant success in singles in 1973 when he reached the quarter-final stage at two Biggest Grand Slam events. At Wimbledon he lost 7–5 in the fifth set to the eventual champion Jan Kodeš and later that summer at the US Open, lost to Ken Rosewall after having beaten Rod Laver two rounds earlier.
Amritraj repeated his feat in US open at Forest Hills in 1974 when he went out in the Quarter-final stage again to Rosewall after beating a young Björn Borg in the second round. It was not until 1981 when Amritraj again reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, going out in five sets to Jimmy Connors, he was up two sets but lost the last two convincingly in a 2–6, 5–7, 6–4, 6–3, 6–2 loss.
He qualified in the finals twice in 1974 and 1987 in the Davis Cup.
His highest ranking in Men’s Singles was No. 16 in the world in 1980. The Indian Government has awarded him the Padma Shri Award, which is one of the prestigious honors of the country.

Leander Adrian Paes:
Born in Goa on June 17, 1973, he won the Wimbledon Junior title in 1990 and claimed the No.1 spot in the junior world-rankings.

In 1996, he won a bronze medal in Men’s single’s at the Atlanta Olympics.
In 1998, The doubles team of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi reached the Semi-Finals of 3 grand slams, the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open. July 6, 1998, he won the ATP singles title at Newport, US beating Neville Godwin in finals and had beaten Pete Sampras at the New Haven ATP tournament in the same year.
In 1999, the duo reached the finals of all the 4 grand slams winning the Wimbledon and the French Open, thus becoming the first Indian pair to win a doubles event at a Grand slam event. Paes also teamed up with Lisa Raymond to win the Mixed doubles event at Wimbledon, by beating Jonas Björkman and Anna Kournikova in finals. The year also marked his ascent to the No.1 ranking in the doubles.
In 2001, he along with Bhupathi won the French Open doubles.
In 2003, Leander won the Mixed doubles events at the Australian Open and Wimbledon with Martina Navaratilova, both in 2003.
In 2004, he finished 4th place in doubles of Olympic Games.
In 2006, His next Grand Slam success was in the U.S. Open doubles event partnering with Martin Damm & also won two gold’s in Doha Asian Games in the Men's doubles (partnering Mahesh Bhupathi) and Mixed doubles(partnering Sania Mirza).
In 2008, partnering with Cara Black won the US open Mixed Doubles title. The doubles team of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi reached the Quarter-finals of 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Even after his 1st grand slam title 10 years back he is still ranked world No.10 in doubles as on November 16, 2008.

He was a recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in the year 1996-1997 and in 2001, he was awarded the Padma Shri.