Greatest Indian athletes since Independence

Leslie Claudius was part of an Indian Hockey team that dominated the sport for close to two decades. Claudius had nursed ambitions of playing football at the international level before he switched to hockey later and good thing that he did too for Indian hockey gained one of its greatest players after Dhyan Chand. He was part of three Olympic gold winning teams and one silver medal winning team.

Milkha Singh, "The Flying Sikh" was India's foremost athlete for close to a decade. He missed out on a gold medal at Rome Olympics in 1960 but his prowess was acknowledged throughout the globe. He won four gold medals in Asian Games and has since won numerous accolades for his contribution to Indian sport.

India's first all-rounder, Vinoo Mankad was also one of the finest players of his era. Along with Keith Miller, Mankad was considered one of the finest all-rounders of his day.

MAK Pataudi was the Indian Captain who guided the team to its first ever Test series win overseas in New Zealand in 1967. The leader who infused a fierce competitiveness into the side and under whose watch, India finally managed to get out of the cocoon of underachieving, Pataudi was also a stylish bat.

Much before the Amritraj brothers gave the Indian tennis community a great deal to cheer about, Ramanthan Krishnan put India on the global tennis map by making it semi-final of the Wimbledon twice in 1960 and 61. A player who earned the respect of the great Roy Emerson, Krishnan was unlucky to miss out on a Major.

Hiranna M. Nimal's accomplishments are not as glorious as those of Dhyan Chand or Leslie Claudius. But, when he was an active player, he was considered one of the best. He was part of the Indian hockey team that won the silver in the Asian games in 1962.

Amritraj, Borg and Connors were called the ABC of tennis in the 1970s. Amritraj never did won a Major but was a player of the top draw for the entirety of his career. His problem lay in his lack of endurance due to an respiratory problem. The only Indian player to have broken into the top 20, Amritraj remains one of India's greatest tennis icons.

It is interesting to note that India has managed to win the Hockey World Cup just once despite winning the gold in the Olympics eight times. In the 1975 World Cup, it was Ashok Kumar who struck the winning goal in the final.

He was India's answer to Don Bradman, Jack Hobbs and the rest. With his impregnable defence, his expansive range of strokes and fierce determination, Sunil Gavaskar tumbled records aplenty. His domination of the Carribean bowlers in an era when they were scaring the living daylights out of every other batsman has percolated all layers of Indian society

ndia's first genuine quick and arguably its best all-rounder, Kapil Dev brought about the great revolution in Indian cricket when he led a lot of unbridled youngsters to a triumph in the 1983 World Cup, probably the most seminal moment in Indian cricket's history. Only a pale shadow of himself when he retired, he was the highest wicket-taker in Tests for close to eight years.

Before Indian badminton saw almost a surplus of players who managed to contend at the top level, Prakash Padukone put India on the map by winning the gold at Commonwealth (1978) and the All England Open (1982)

P T Usha was yet another unfortunate athlete from India who missed out on a deserving medal at the Olympics. Usha's achievements lie not in her records but in the number of women athletes that she inspired to take up athletics.

The cruel ironies of life are indeed too hard to digest and no one will know this better than Dhanraj Pillay. His entry into Indian hockey team coincided with a period when the game was on a decline in the country. Despite not being a part of many victorious campaigns, Pillay is still considered one of the modern greats of the game.

When Sachin Tendulkar walks out to bat anywhere in the world, he is welcomed to the crease with a standing ovation. Regardless of whether he is the greatest batsman of all time or not, the kind of persona that he has is simply unparalleled. Not to mention the fact that more than half of the Indian population waits for him to go out there and bat all the time.

Anil Kumble's work with the Indian team was drudgery but not once, even when he was in gruesome pain, did he grumble about the responsibilities that he had to shoulder. One of Indian cricket's greatest champions, Kumble scalped 619 wickets in 131 Tests.

narguably the greatest Indian chess Grandmaster and one of the world's greatest chess players, Viswanathan Anand was the delight of all those who were interested in national accomplishments in a sport that was not cricket. The recipient of Padma Vibushan, the nation's second highest civilian honour, Anand still has a lot to offer to the game.

One was the defatiguable crusader, the other the indolent stylist while one was a leader who instilled hope. Together, they formed the spine of the Indian middle-order along with Sachin Tendulkar. Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly are all great, albeit each in their own ways. All three of them played vital roles in making India a force to reckon with not just at home but abroad as well.

Leander Adrian Paes (born 17 June 1973) is an Indian professional tennis player who typically plays in doubles events on the ATP Tour and Davis Cup. Having won eight doubles and six mixed doubles Grand Slam titles and finishing as runner up in numerous other Grand Slam finals, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most respected contemporary doubles and mixed doubles players in the world. He is the oldest man to have won a grand slam title. He is among the most successful professional Indian tennis players and is also the former captain of the Indian Davis Cup team. He is the recipient of India's highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, in 1996–1997; the Arjuna Award in 1990; and the Padma Shri award in 2001 for his outstanding contribution to tennis in India. Paes completed the career grand slam in men's doubles after winning the Australian Open in 2012.[1] He is the sports ambassador of the Indian state of Haryana.

Baichung Bhutia (born 15 December 1976) or Bhaichung Bhutia is an Indian footballer of Sikkimese-Bhutia descent who plays as a striker. Bhutia is considered to be the torchbearer of Indian football in the international arena.[3] He is often nicknamed the Sikkimese Sniper because of his shooting skills in football.[4][5] Three-time Indian Player of the Year I. M. Vijayan described Bhutia as "God's gift to Indian football".[6]
Bhutia has had four spells at I-League football team East Bengal Club, the club where he started his career. When he joined English club Bury in 1999, he became the first Indian footballer to sign a contract with a European club and only the second to play professionally in Europe, after Mohammed Salim. Afterwards he had a short loan spell at the Malaysian football club Perak FA. As well as this he has played for JCT Mills, which won the league once during his tenure; and Mohun Bagan, which failed to win the league once during his two spells, in his native India. His international footballing honours include winning the Nehru Cup, LG Cup, SAFF Championship three times and the AFC Challenge Cup. He is also India's most capped player, and in the 2009 Nehru Cup he received his 100th international cap.

He was Prakash Padukone's student and incidentally, he is the coach of India's present badminton sensation Saina Nehwal. Pullela Gopichand won the prestigious All England Open in 2001 to raise the hopes of the Indian badminton fraternity at a time when the Saina Nehwals, P V Sindhus were still attending elementary school.

ajyavardhan Singh Rathore had shown the way and now it was left to Abhinav Bindra to walk on it and he did so in style when he won the gold in shooting in Beijing Olympics in 2008. He became the first Indian to win a gold in an individual event

Sushil Kumar is the only Indian who has managed to win two Olympic medals in individual events. At Beijing in 2008, he won the bronze for wrestling and went one better in 2012 by winning the silver.

Along with Julia Schenk of Germany, Saina Nehwal played a pivotal role in ending the Chinese monopoly in badminton in the last few years of the first decade of the 21st century. But her greatest achievement came in 2012 Olympics in Beijing when she won the bronze, becoming the first Indian to do so in badminton.

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Mary Kom was the only Indian woman boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, competing in the flyweight (51 kg) category and winning the bronze medal. She has also been ranked as No. 4 AIBA World Women's Ranking Flyweight category.

Yogeshwar Dutt (born 2 November 1982) is an Indian wrestler He belongs to a Brahmin family in Haryana.[1] He won the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Men's 60kg Freestyle wrestling.[2] He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2013.[3] He won Gold Medal in 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow.[4]