Javelin superstar thrower Neeraj Chopra, chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa and shuttler HS Prannoy have dominated the sports pages and brought laurels to the nation in the last few days, putting even a super-popular sport like cricket in the background for a while.
It\u2019s a welcome change, which has left India\u2019s cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar mighty pleased. The opening great feels that these scintillating performances by our sporting heroes could lead to India being labelled as a \u201csporting country\u201d in \u201c10-15 years\u2019 time, just like the US and Australia.\u201d
\u201cIf you see, with the exposure that Indian sportspersons are getting \u2026If you think about America and Australia as sporting countries, I feel that in 10-15 years\u2019 time, India will also be called a sporting country. They (India\u2019s sportspersons beyond cricketers) have now got a platform. Earlier, you would see only 2-4 sports would be talked about, the media coverage would only be for those 2-4 sports. Now, all the sportspersons have got an outlet and exposure and because of that, we are getting to see the (emergence of) our sporting stars. Praggu finished as the runners-up (in the Chess World Cup final). He is just 18, so he can win many titles in the future. In the Badminton World Championships, Prannoy reached the semifinals. He defeated Viktor Axelsen, who\u2019s the No 1 badminton player in the world,\u201d Gavaskar said on Monday after being announced the principal advisor of the Midwicket Stories.<\/p>\n
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Neeraj Chopra wins gold medal in Men’s Javelin at the World Athletics Championship 2023<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Raving about Neeraj Chopra\u2019s gold medal-winning feat in the World Athletics Championships on Sunday night in Budapest-India\u2019s maiden gold in the prestigious event- Gavaskar said: \u201cI felt very, very happy. I remember when he (Neeraj Chopra) had won the gold in the Olympics, the India-England series was going on and this happened in Tokyo – I was watching in England – and I was prompted to sing a (movie) song \u2018Mere desh ki dharti sona ugle\u2026. Yesterday, I experienced the same feeling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cWe had seen Neeraj two years earlier when he won the gold medal in the Olympics. Last year he won a silver medal, but for him it was important to win the gold medal and with a long throw he won it. It inspires other (athletes) too. You would have seen that in this World Athletics Championships, it was not just Neeraj, our other two javelin throwers (DP Manu & Kishore Jena) were also in the final. When one athlete does well, it gives encouragement to other Indians playing that sport and inspires the others to take up that sport as well,\u201d Gavaskar said.
Talking about cricket, Gavaskar felt that Sri Lanka also deserved a mention when it comes to rivalries about the Asia Cup, even as all the focus was on the Indo-Pakistan battle. \u201cIn the Asia Cup, Sri Lanka is also there, and has also been winning the Asia Cup. The rivalry between these three countries is always something special,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n