India never had a rich sporting history in comparison to other countries. If we take Olympics as a benchmark, India has always struggled to find a place in the top of the medals tally. Besides a few selected sports such as hockey and cricket, India has not made a major mark on any other sporting event if we look back at the history of Indian sports. The problem always is related to the development of good sporting infrastructure in the country and the perceptions of the people towards sports as a career launcher.

However, things have started moving ahead for the good if we look back at the past few years of performances by Indian sports stars. Government of India Sports Ministry has started making huge investments into the development of other sports in India. Many sports bodies have been set up to look after different sports in India. These bodies function in coordination with the government in ensuring that best of the facilities are provided to Indian athletes and sports stars.

These recent developments have started producing excellent results for Indian sports. We have witnessed a flurry of individual accomplishments in other important Indian sports. Major international sporting events have witnessed emergence of Indian sporting icons. 2008 Summer Olympics at Beijing saw some amazing achievements from India. Abhinav Bindra, India’s ace shooter did India proud by winning the first individual gold medal. Boxer Vijendar Kumar did India proud by winning the Bronze in Men’s Middleweight category competition. In the same Olympics Sushil Kumar, the Indian wrestler earned a bronze in the Men’s Freestyle 66 kg wrestling contest. These are just few of the recent examples where Indian sports stars have excelled and made a mark for themselves and brought glory to India. Indian sports will always find a mention of the cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar who has made the country proud and is considered as the best cricketer in the world to have ever played the game of cricket. Sania Mirza, the golden girl from the game of tennis has also surprised many by being the only Indian to have defeated three top 10 ranked female tennis stars in her illustrious tennis career. Vishwanathan Anand the maestro of Chess, is another famous Indian sports icon who has been a world champion on more than one occasion. Pankaj Advani, the reigning world billiards champion is another name that comes to mind when we talk about the rapid transformation of Indian sports. These sporting icons of India have brought name and fame to India by their many achievements and have proved time and time again that they are nothing short of best when it comes to sports.