Sports in India

List of main Indian sports are here under:
1) Cricket
2) Hockey
3) Football
4)Lawn tennis
5) Chess
6) Kabaddi
7) Formula One
8) Badminton
9) Boxing
10) Basketball
11) Rugby
12) Golf
13) Billiards and snooker
14) Volleyball
15) Table tennis
16) Squash
17) Bowling
18) Polo
19) Horse racing & Equestrian
20) Sailing
21) Gymnastics
22) Throwball
23) Baseball & Softball
24) Ice hockey
25) Flat water & sea kayaking
26) Snow sports
27) Whitewater kayaking
28) Rock climbing
29) Mountain biking
30) Scuba diving
31) Adventure race

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(1)Cricket:Cricket is just like god in india .cricket is by far India's most popular sport. It has contributed many famous players to the game such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar , Kapil Dev ,Rahul Dravid,etc. India won the 1983 Cricket World Cup under Kapil Dev, and finished as runner up in the 2003 World Cup under Sourav Ganguly. India also won the first (and only) World Championship of Cricket in 1985 under Sunil Gavaskar, and more recently, the ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 under Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The administrative body that runs both the international and domestic teams is called the BCCI (Board of Cricket Control in India). There are two main domestic tournaments in India: the Ranj trophy and the Duleep Trophy.More recently, two Twenty20 leagues have started up; the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and the Indian Premier League (IPL). The two leagues are competing fiercely with each other. Most cricket boards have banned ICL players.
(2) Hockey: Hockey is India's national game. Till the mid 20th century India dominated international hockey winning 8 Olympic Golds and the World Cup in 1975 and runner up in 1973. Indian player Major Dhyanchand, arguably the most famous has been described as a 'wizard' and German chancellor Adolf Hitler once offered him a Marshall rank in his army (although once he also confiscated Chand's stick and had it torn apart and dissected to check for magnets, glue etc.) However, India's recent performance have been below par and India is currently ranked 8th in the world.
Even though cricket has by far overtaken hockey in popularity, Hockey still strikes an emotional cord especially with the older generation. India's Men hockey team recently won the Asia Cup held in Chennai, defeating South Korea by a very convincing margin. However, they failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, the first time they have not made it to the Olympic finals since 1928.

(3)Football:Football another major sports in India. It was introduced during the British occupation and in some areas of the country, it is more popular than cricket. India was an Asian powerhouse till the sixties, but gradually the standard of football has gone down compared to other countries and currently India ranks 153 in the FIFA Rankings as of the 29th of June 2008. India was the Asian Games Champion in 1951 & 1962 and were 4th in 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
The AIFF (All India Football Federation) is the parent body of football in India. The league structure in India follows a pyramid pattern with the ONGC I-League at the top most tier. There were 10 teams in the inaugural I-League 2007-08. It is followed by 2nd Division National Football League, 3rd Division National Football League and Local Leagues. Apart from the leagues, The Federation Cup is India's premier knock-out Cup tournament.
The current I-League Champion is Dempo SC, Goa and Federation Cup winner is Kingfisher East Bengal Club, Kolkata.

(4)Tennis:Tennis is popular among Indians in urban areas. However, India's fortunes in the Grand Slams singles have been unimpressive although Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have won Men's Doubles and Mixed Doubles Grand Slam Titles. Leander Paes has also won an Olympic Bronze medal in the 1996 Atlanta Games. In Davis Cup, India have been runners-up twice, in the years 1974 and 1987. The most successful Indian men's singles players have been Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Ramanathan Krishnan and Leander Paes. Sania Mirza, is the only notable Indian woman tennis player, having won a WTA title and breaking in to the Top 50 WTA ranking

(5)Chess:It is thought that chess may have originated in India, although given that it can be seen to have been played as early as the eighth century it is difficult to say where exactly it originated from. Nonetheless, in its early days, chess was played in India. It is quite a popular sport, but players lack sponsors. India has produced one of the all-time great chess players of the world Vishwanathan Anand. Other grandmasters are emerging from different states, including Parimarjan Negi, world's youngest International master and Koneru Humpy, world's junior champion.

(6)Kabaddi:Kabaddi originated from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states of India, also popular in states of Punjab and Haryana. Agility and most importantly hand eye coordination. This sport is played by a person called a "raider" goes to one side where 4 teammates will be holding hands in a semi-circle. The raider has to try to touch one of the teammates and run back to his line. But the teammates holding hands can grab the raider and knock him down, which will earn his team a point. These are just the simple rules, there are more complex rules. India bagged gold at the Asian Games 2006 men's event and won a gold in kabaddi world cup held in India.

(7)Fprmula one: Formula One Motor Racing is gaining popularity in urban India. It is one of the fastest growing sports where viewership is concerned citation needed. In 2010, New Delhi will host the first ever Indian Grand Prix. Although there are no F1 circuits in India at present, there is an F3 circuit at Sri Perumbudur near Chennai.
In October 2007, the Indian multi-billionaire Vijay Mallya bought the under-performing F1 team Spyker and renamed it Force India. Force India F1 represents India's increased participation within Formula One.
India has also produced some good drivers. India's Narain Karthikeyan has driven for Team Jordan in 2005. He was the second test driver for Team Williams during 2006-07. Karun Chandok, arguably India's second best driver, has been competing at GP2 level and might feature with an F1 team in the future. Red Bull has expressed interest in him, and he recently tested for them at Barcelona

(8)Badminton:Badminton is supposed to have originated in India 2000 years ago. Although India is not among the top teams, it has consistently produced players of high international ranking. Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand have won the prestigious All England Badminto Championships. Badminton is a popular recreational sport all over India. Young talents like Saina Nehwal are emerging from different states.

(9)Boxing:Boxing is one of the lesser profiled sports in India. Boxing does have school and national championship matches. However, India is yet to produce a heavyweight champion. In November 2007, India's M. C. Mary Kom won the best boxer title for the third time and created a hat-trick. Today there are great boxers like Aruna Mishra, Sarita Devi, N. Usha, Jenny Ralte, Lekha, Renu and Kalpana Chaudhary. India is a regular medal-holder at Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

(10)Basket ball: it is only played in school and colleges in india

(11)Rugby:The Britishers introduced Rugby to India. The game is being played domestically for over 100 years now. The popularity of the game has increased over the last few years and the game has spread all over the country. The main centres that play rugby are Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore. Rugby is predominantly played in clubs but lot of work is being conducted for grassroots development. The Indian Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is the governing body of rugby in India and hosts the All India & South Asia Rugby Tournament annually which is the premier national level tournament in the country.
India right now has a National Rugby Union team. The famous Indian actor Rahul Bose is a member of the Indian Rugby team. India started playing internationally since 1998. India has played 18 tests: Won 2, Draw 1, Lost 15. India also competes in the 7-a-side format at the international level but doesn't have a women's rugby team, though there has been some evidence of women being trained for rugby.

(12)Golf:Golf is an emerging sport in India. It is popular sport with the rich. It has not caught on with middle class and poor people due to the fact that it is expensive. However, there are numerous golf courses all over India. There is an Indian Golf Tour. Many Indian professionals have competed on the Asian Tour and a few have made the top level European and PGA Tours.
Examples of Indian golf stars are Jeev Milkha Singh, who became the first Indian to make the top fifty of the Official World Golf Rankings in late 2006, and Jyoti Randhawa. India's men's golf team won silver at the 2006 Asian Games.

(13)Billiards and snooker:These are popular club sports in India. India has produced players of international ranking, Geet Sethi, Michael Ferreira , Pankaj Advani to name some.

(14)Volleyball:Volleyball is a sport played all over India, both in rural as well as urban India. It is a popular recreation sport. India is ranked 5th in Asia and 27th in world rankings. Recently India won the Asian central zone championships beating high-ranked teams like Kazakhstan and Iran. India is doing well in the youth and junior levels, having secured 2nd in the 2003 World youth championships. This sport lacks sponsors.

(15)Table tennis:Table tennis is a popular indoor recreation sport in India. It has caught on in states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, which are now producing a few world class players.
Table Tennis Federation of India is the official sports body which controls the game in India India had produced some good players like Kamlesh Mehta, Chetan Baboor and Achanta Sharath Kamal who is currently ranked 90 in the world. He is also the current Commonwealth champion. Chetan was ranked around 66 when he was at his peak. Unfortunately the amount of money being pumped into table tennis in India is meagre as compared to other games like cricket & golf. Due to the lack of good performances by Indians in World Championships and Olympics has kept the sponsors uninterested in the sport.

(16)Squash:Squash is a recreation sport, played in clubs in urban areas.
Some of the leading Indian Squash Players are - Ritwik Bhattacharya, Saurav Ghosal, Joshna Chinappa and Anwesha Reddy.

(17)Bowling:In the recent past this sport has gained some popularity in urban India, but is still a recreational sport and not yet considered as a competitive sport. It involves expensive infrastructure and space which is hard to come by in many Indian cities.

(18)It is supposed that polo originated in India, the Mughal emperors being the first players. Considered a royal game, polo is popular in the Indian army as well as in northern India.

(19)Horse racing:While horse racing is inherited from the British Raj, it is still alive and kicking in most cities in India. There are Turf Clubs that host horse races in Calcutta, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Mysore and Hyderabad. Horse racing is mainly conducted in the winter season to take advantage of the relatively cooler temperatures. Equestrian events are also held within India regularly, with the Chennai Equestrian Academy playing host to national and world championship events. Recently, India earned bronze medal in the Equestrian event at the Asian Games 2006.

(20)Sailing and Gymnastics:Known in sailors that live on their coasts of India.Almost non existent after school level. Bears similarities to local sport from Maharashtra called Mallakhamb.

Throw ball,baseball,basketball,ice hockey,Ice hockey,snow sports,rock climbing,montain biking,adventure race ,etc are not very commonly played in india.