Field hockey is the official national sport in India, and the country has won eight Olympic gold medals in field hockey, though cricket is the most popular sport. Recent RTI revealed that India has no national game. After the 1982 Asian Games hosted in New Delhi, the capital city (New Delhi) now has modern sports facilities, and similar facilities are also being developed in other parts of the country. Besides sports and games included in the international sporting agenda, there are many which have developed indigenously and continue to be popular.
A wide variety of sports is played throughout the country. These include kabbadi, kho kho, pehlwani, and gilli-danda. British rule brought many popular sports in India including football, rugby union, cricket, golf, tennis, squash, hockey, boxing, snooker, and billiards.
India has hosted and co-hosted several international sporting events, such events include the 1951 Asian Games and the 1982 Asian Games, the 1987 Cricket World Cup and 1996 Cricket World Cup, the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the 2010 Hockey World Cup, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Major international sporting events annually held in India include the Chennai Open, Mumbai Marathon, Delhi Half Marathon, and the Indian Masters. India also hosted its first Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit, an Indian motor racing circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh in India.
India is also home to cricket's Indian Premier League, launched in 2008. According to Forbes magazine, IPL is the second richest sporting league after the NBA.
Before independence
The history of sports in India dates back to the Vedic era. Physical culture in ancient India was fed by a powerful fuel: religiousrights. There were some well-defined values like the mantra in the Atharva-Veda, saying," Duty is in my right hand and the fruits of victory in my left". In terms of an ideal, these words hold the same sentiments as the traditional Olympic oath: "For the Honour of my Country and the Glory of Sport."
Badminton probably originated in India as a grownup's version of a very old children's game known in England as battledore and shuttlecock, the battledore being a paddle and the shuttlecock a small feathered cork, now usually called a "bird."
Games like chess, snakes and ladders, playing cards, and polo had originated as sports in India and it was from here that these games were transmitted to foreign countries, where they were further modernized.
After independence
After the IX Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982, the capital city now has modern sports facilities. Such facilities are also being developed in other parts of the country. Besides sports and games included in the international sporting agenda, there are many which have developed indigenously. Among these are wrestling and several traditional systems of martial arts. The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports was initially set up as the Department of Sports in 1982 at the time of organisation of the IX Asian Games in New Delhi. Its name was changed to the Department of Youth affairs & sports during celebration of the International Youth Year, 1985.
India has hosted or co-hosted several international sporting events, such as the 1951 and the 1982 Asian Games, the 1987 and 1996 Cricket World Cup, the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the 2010 Hockey World Cup, and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Major international sporting events annually held in India include the Chennai Open, Mumbai Marathon, and the Indian Masters. The country hosted the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the first Indian Grand Prix in 2011.
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