National Sports Day special: Positives and Negatives of Indian Sports

29th August- a day by the Indian sportspersons, a day of the Indian sportspersons and a day for the Indian sportspersons. Not many know that 29th August is a big day for the Indian sports fraternity. Today is the National Sports Day, celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of Indian hockey legend Dhyan Chand.The honorable President of India will entrust the prestigious awards such as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dronacharya awards to the sports persons who have contributed to the growth of sports all through their sporting career and even after the retirement.Indian players are exceptionally well in few sports and have set benchmarks for the rest of the world to aspire to. However, there are some other sports where we need to work a lot more harder to challenge the rest of the world.On this special day let’s take a quick look at the positives and negatives of how Indian teams and players are doing in few of the sports:

#1 Cricket

Positves

Cricket is undoubtedly the most viewed and most enjoyed sport in our country. With tournaments like IPL giving Indian youngsters to showcase their talent in front of the whole world, it is also giving them a chance to play for the home nation.

Indian team has done remarkably well when it comes to the shorter formats of the game. Indian team, who finished as the runners up in the 2014 T-20 World Cup are the world number one team in this format. Even in the ODI’s Indian team stays at the 2nd spot with just one rating point behind the Kangaroos.

Negatives

After being humiliated by the English Team in the recently concluded Investec Test series, Indian team is surely going through one of the worst phases in the 5-day format of the game. Indian team’s performance in the overseas test matches has gone from bad to worse in the past 2-3 years.

In the political arena of the game, things are started to take a sour turn. In May 2014, BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel banned Rajasthan Cricket Association after Lalit Modi was appointed as the President of the state cricket body.

With the domestic season set to kick off in another month and a half, the future of top Rajasthan cricketers like Pankaj Singh, Robin Bist and Ashok Menaria is hung in this political fight.

#2 Football

Positves

The Indian national football team hasn’t seen any significant growth in the past year. Sunil Chhetri continues to be India’s talisman. With the inaugral Indian Super League scheduled to be held in October, there is hope around the country that the tournament will help develop and promote the sport.

The Indian women’s team is currently ranked 50th in the FIFA rankings, 100 spots better than their male counterparts.

India was also chosen as the nation to host the under-17 FIFA world cup in 2017.

Negatives

Indian football team’s stands at the 150th spot in the FIFA rankings. The team recently suffered a 2-0 defeat against arch rivals Pakistan at home.

#3 Badminton

Caption

Positves

The performance of Indian badminton players has improved a lot in the last year or so. Kashyap’s Commonwealth gold and Saina’s Australian Open Superseries title are highlights of few of the credible achievements by the Indian players.

Indian teens are also improving at the junior stage. Aditya Joshi made it to the semifinals of men’s singles before going down to the top seeded Chinese shuttler at the recently concluded Youth Olympics.

Negatives

Doubles star Jwala Gutta lashed out at the chief national coach Pullela Gopichand after winning the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games as the 2011 World Championships bronze medalist duo of Gutta and Ponappa were not invited to the ‘welcome party’ by coach Gopichand.

"We were not even informed about it while he (Gopichand) is supposed to be our chief national coach. He is supposed to include all, and not just a few of his favourites," said Gutta at an event.

#4 Athletics

Positves

Indian athletes registered strong performance at the Commonwealth games as they grabbed a gold, silver and bronze medal in the 20th edition of these quadrennial events.

Indian juniors also performed well at the 2014 Youth Olympics as five out of the five Indian athletes made it to the finals of their respective events. Although none of them made it to the podium but still the performance of the young guns was applauded by everyone.

Negatives

Controversy struck the India's Commonwealth Games contingent as the young sprinter Dutee Chand was disqualified and excluded from the Indian athletics team after failing the gender test conducted by SAI. Dutee Chand was the only athlete to undergo the test prior to the international event.

With this decision, the career of the 18-year-old sprinter from Odisha has hit a roadblock. “The athlete will still be able to compete in the female category in future if she takes proper medical help and lowers her androgen level to the specified range” said a SAI official.

#5 Tennis

Positves

Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza achieved a career-best rank of number five in the latest doubles World Rankings released by WTA. Saina, who is currently playing the U.S Open, won the WTA Portugal Open in May 2014. She also reached the finals of the Australian Open in the mixed doubles category.

Saina along with her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black finished as runners-up at Indian Wells in March 2014 and at Stuttgart event in April 2014.

Indian Tennis legend Leander Paes is ranked 12th in the World.

In partnership with the All India Tennis Association (AITA), the Wimbledon Foundation unveiled the road to Wimbledon in India, an initiative to increase tennis opportunities for junior players.

Siddhant Banthia, a 14-year-old boy from Pune, became the 2014 boys' singles champion after defeating the top seed Maxime Trenakhin of England, 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-0 in the final.

Negatives

BJP leader K Laxman flayed the TRS government's decision to appoint Sania Mirza as the brand ambassador of Telangana. Politician called Sania as "daughter-in-law" of Pakistan and also questioned her credentials for the honour.

Somdev Devvarman’s performance has taken a dip in the last one year. Somdev, who lost in the opening round at Wimbledon, failed to qualify for the main draw of the U.S Open 2014. Somdev is currently ranked 143 in ATP singles ranking.

#6 Wrestling

Positves

Indian wrestlers bagged five golds, six silvers and two bronze to finish with a tally of 13 medals, most by any country at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Indian wrestlers will surely be aiming for the same level of performance in the upcoming World Championships and Asian Games.

Negatives

Virender Malik, a senior wrestling referee was arrested on an alleged sexual assault charge at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Three Indian wrestlers, Rahul Aware, Joginder Kumar and Mausam Khatri filed a case in Delhi High Court just before the Glasgow games seeking de-recognition of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) alleging violation of sports code by not holding trials for selecting players for Glasgow.

#7 Hockey

The Indian men’s Hockey team has been through few ups and downs in the last one year.

Positves

In June 2014 Indian Men’s hockey team finished ninth in the 13th edition of the Hockey World cup in Netherlands but they were at their level best in the 2014 CWG as they outclassed some higher ranked teams to make their way to the finals.

Indian lost to the World Champions Australia in the gold medal match but their performance was appreciated by each and everyone.

Negatives

Indian women’s hockey team had a relatively disappointing last year as they first failed to qualify for the 2014 Women's Hockey World Cup and then finished a disappointing fifth in 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Both men’s and women’s team will next play the 17th Asian games starting from 19th of September in Incheon, South Korea.

#8 Boxing

Positves

Indian pugilists displayed grit and talent throughout the CWG as they grabbed four silvers and a bronze in these games.

In terms of rankings, Laishram Devendro Singh is currently the world number 3 in men’s 46-49kg weight category whereas 2012 Asian Olympic Qualifying tournament gold medallist Shiva Thapa is 3rd in the Bantamweight category.

Negatives

It is most likely that Indian boxers may not compete under the tri-color at the upcoming Asian Games as the country's boxing administration is currently banned by AIBA.

"There is a realistic chance of Indian boxers not taking part under Indian flag. We have apprehensions that AIBA will not allow them to represent India if the elections (to Boxing India) are not held as scheduled (on September 11)," said SAI Director General Jiji Thomson in a press meet.

#9 Archery

Positves

Indian Archers did a splendid job at the recently concluded Archery World Cup Stage-4 in Wroclaw, Poland as women's recurve team clinched the gold while the men's recurve team won for silver.

In the junior section of the sport, young Indian archer Atul Verma won the gold medal in boy’s recurve individual category at the Nanjing Youth Olympics.

Negatives

In October 2013, two Indian archers namely Mihu Maselo and Yumi Sorang, the archers from Arunachal Pradesh, were forced to return from New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport for having been issued stapled visas by the Chinese Embassy prior to the Youth World Archery Championships.

#10 Basketball

Positves

The national team won the gold medal at the 2014 Lusofonia games with wins over Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, and Angola in the gold medal game. At the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup India pulled off the biggest win in there 80 year history by defeated China on their home court 65-58.

21-year-old Sim Bhullar of Indian origin signed his first professional NBA contract with Sacramento Kings.

Negatives

Without any real funding or promotions, basketball remains to be in the shadows of the mainstream sports in India. Despite the growing popularity of NBA in India, the game itself cannot grow in the absence of a national league.