Hockey was the most popular sport in India but India's famous World Cup Win on 25th June 1983 made cricket the most popular game in India. While it was the historic World Cup win which made cricket the number one game in India what set the platform for its status was the technically perfect Sunil Gavaskar's famous exploits against the West Indian fast bowlers and consistencythroughout his career which made him the best batsman of his generation and the second best in the world behind the legendary Sir Don Bradman.
The exploits of Gavaskar and Kapil Dev and their iconic status inspired many to take up the game and some of them went on to become superstarslike Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, M S Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. Apart from these superstars India produced many match winners like Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh and others who were on par with the best with the world on their day. The above named players form a very few from a list which is very long.
However when it comes to tennis in India it has not produced as many superstars. Indian players have had super human achievements to their name in Davis Cup when the likes of Vijay Amritaj, Ramesh Krishnan the son of illustrious Ramnathan Krishnan had conquered the world by beating the number one players in the world like Mats Wilander and John Mc Enroe comfortably in Davis Cup. After having watched the exploits of the duo of Vijay Amritraj and Ramesh Krishnan India should have produced plenty of world class players but what Indians just have three world class players in the trio of Mahesh Bhupathi, Leander Paes and Sania Mirza.
While many sportsmen of other disciplines always had a complaint that sports likes athletics are not promoted in the say way as cricket, tennis players cannot complain of for they too have been encouraged and have given more than adequate media support. Indians have reason to be proud of Mahesh Bhupathi and Paes for they have conquered the world with many Grand Slam Championships in mens doubles and mixed doubles while Sania Mirza has done extraordinary well in her short career but at the end of the day as a country we should weel disappointed for not having produced many more world class players in tennis.
What would surprise many is the fact that Indians have overachieved even in a field like athletics wherein their achievements are not properly highlighted, encouraged or remunerated. In a filed like tennis where achievements are magnified India have the potential to throw out a bunch of champions who could conquer the world in the future.