A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

Another step towards being the best in the world

Poll- Which Indian Sportsperson are you most excited about? (Choose upto 5)

Results - Saina Nehwal – Badminton (48.0%, 43 Votes)
Yuki Bhambri – Tennis (22.0%, 20 Votes)
Somdev Dev Varman – Tennis (21.0%, 19 Votes)
Jeev Milkha Singh – Golf (20.0%, 18 Votes)
Sunil Chhteri – Football (20.0%, 18 Votes)
Abhinav Bindra – Shooting (19.0%, 17 Votes)
Sania Mirza – Tennis (19.0%, 17 Votes)
Koneru Humpy – Chess (19.0%, 17 Votes)
Akhil Kumar – Boxing (19.0%, 17 Votes)

Disclaimer – This poll was limited to non-cricket sports only.

As I write this, Saina Nehwal has broken new ground yet again, winning the Super Series title in Indonesia. With this win she has finally managed to break through the ‘Great Wall of China’ at Super Series Events. The wall of top Chinese players had stopped her from progressing beyond the semi-finals till date, leaving behind a trail of closely contested three setters. Now that Saina has broken through the Chinese hoodoo at the Super Series, we can expect more wins and glory for her and more joy for us – the fans who have voted her as the future of Indian Sport by a landslide.

The best part is that Saina is just 19 years old and has already given us a lifetime of great moments. She continues to get better and move up the world rankings. She is unrelenting in her desire to be the best player in the world and unfazed by the challenges that lie in her path. The world is her oyster and if the poll results are anything to go by, a lot of Indian sports fans including yours truly, are already licking their chops at the prospect of all the sporting joy that Saina Nehwal is going to bring to their lives over the next 10 years.

The race to be the second most exciting sportsperson in India is a dead heat between 3 tennis players, a golfer, a boxer, a shooter, a chess player and a footballer, although technically speaking, Yuki Bhambhri is alone in second place. It augurs well for Indian sports that so many sportspersons from different sports are doing well and each of them has a decent number of followers who are looking forward to their every move.

Now there is more good news for these sports fans. They can watch the videos of their favourite Indian sportspersons on www.SportPass.tv. This is a new sports video website which aggregates the most locally relevant sports videos from all over the world.

Now you don’t need to bother about media apathy towards the achievements of these sportspersons. If they are not showing you the action, you can catch it on SportPass.tv

More glory to Indian Sports

The statistical relevance and bias prevention steps for this poll are the same as all the other Commonfan Polls.

Poll – Who is your favourite Indian sportswoman?

Results – Saina Nehwal (33%)/Koneru Humpy (33%)

Sania Mirza (12%)

No sports woman is good enough to be my favourite (9%)

Mithali Raj (6%)

D Harika (3%)

I didn’t know women played sports in India (3%)

The message is loud and clear

Humpy and Saina - Two Unlimited

We have two brilliant young women who ended up in a dead heat in this poll and justifiably so. They are already the most accomplished Indian sportswoman in their chosen sports and world beaters too.

Koneru Humpy is the second best women’s chess player of all time and getting better – She is the female version of Vishwanathan Anand and the rightful heir to his mantle – a more rightful one than the likes of Harikrishna and Sasikiran. She could easily end up becoming the strongest female grandmaster of all time surpassing Judith Polgar and the undisputed women’s world champion – and then even Vishy Anand will have to doff his hat to her. After all he couldn’t do the same thing in the men’s category

Saina Nehwal missed an Olympic medal by a whisker and is knocking on the doors of a top ten world ranking. While she is yet to match the All -England winning accomplishments of Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand, she has managed to do something which no Indian –man or woman has ever managed before – develop a knack for beating the best Chinese players in their own den. If you can do that in badminton, you are capable of winning anything. So basically we are talking of someone who could be the female equivalent of Prakash Padukone here.

We have a female Anand and a female Padukone in the making. Indian women sportswomen have never had it this good before

There is quality and there is quantity too.

We have female champions all over the place – so many of them that the likes of Anjali Bhagwat and Anju Bobby George have already faded from the national consciousness. You can no longer rest on your laurels and benefit from a lacuna of top talent. Even Sania Mirza has slipped to a distant third on account of one bad year. The likes of Dronavalli Harika and Mithali Raj are also rising. Go Indian woman go

And that brings us to the ignorant and the uninformed

For those who voted – ‘No sports woman is good enough to be my favourite’ – Your standards are obviously very high. Don’t think you have a favourite Indian sportsman either. You should either move to Baltimore and start cheering for Phelps or to Jamaica to start rooting for Usain Bolt. Don’t think anyone else is good enough for you.

As for the others – the ones who voted – ‘I didn’t know women played sports in India’ – you better start following the Common Fan – We will keep you updated with all the exploits of the Indian sportswomen. You will surely have a favourite next time round.