Sports in South Asia is a pretty controversial topic as we are not that great at it. The only sports that that south Asians can consider themselves good at is Cricket, Hockey, Kabbadi Boxing, Badminton and Squash. The countries don't perform too well in the Olympics either with India being the only south Asian nation to get any medals in London 2012 and only 6 of them for a country of 1 billion and Bangladesh having the the lowest Medal to Population count(http://sports.**********/news/bangl...edal--but-it-has-four-athletes-in-london.html). So which country in South Asia can be considered the best at sports and why are we so bad at it?
Sports in South Asia
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IamBengali
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Bangladesh is very bad at sports. See we have never even gone close to qualify for an event in Olympics. Sports is not our thing. Cricket? Yeah, we may have won one or two match but still BD cricket is considered underdog after playing for so many years.
Umair Nawaz
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Pakistan was only Country in Asia to be World Champion in 4 games at a time in 1994.
Hockey,Cricket,Snooker and Squash!!!!!!!
Pakistan is no doubt has richest history in Sports in Asia.
Hockey,Cricket,Snooker and Squash!!!!!!!
Pakistan is no doubt has richest history in Sports in Asia.
Jackdaws
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It is not controversial at all. Let's talk about truly international sports and not niche sports - Football - we are horrible, Cricket - we are in the top 3 across all formats, Tennis - we are reasonably good - probably the best in Asia, Hockey - things aren't great anymore but we would still be among the Top 10 teams in the world. The rest are all niche sports - many competitions are based on Western sports like skiing for example. The medal tally in the Olympics are not a barometer - they award ridiculous amount of medals for swimming for example. Micheal Phelps won 8 gold medals in Beijing - do you really think the difference in skill in respective sport between him and Rafael Nadal is 8 fold - after all, Nadal won just 1 gold in Beijing.
Gibbs
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Sri Lanka has a population of just 20 million people.. with that kind of a limited talent pool and a devastating civil war that diverted every attention and funds to the war.. The country has
Won a Cricket WC, Including 3 finalist, A top ranked test side
4rd ranked Rugby union team in Asia, Behind Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea,39th in the world at a physically demanding body contact sport (Ranked out of 100)
International Rugby Board - World Rankings: Full world rankings
Only country in south Asia with two Olympic sprint medalists, Infact only Asians with Olympic sprints except for Liu Xiang (China)
Duncan White - 1948 men's 100m Hurdles - Silver
Duncan White - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Susanthika Jayasinghe - 2000 women's 200m - Silver
Susanthika Jayasinghe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Also SL is the only country in the region with two IAAF world championship medals, Holds many other Athletic records in Asia
It's safe to say SL punches well above it's weight in world sports representing South Asia
Won a Cricket WC, Including 3 finalist, A top ranked test side
4rd ranked Rugby union team in Asia, Behind Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea,39th in the world at a physically demanding body contact sport (Ranked out of 100)
International Rugby Board - World Rankings: Full world rankings
Only country in south Asia with two Olympic sprint medalists, Infact only Asians with Olympic sprints except for Liu Xiang (China)
Duncan White - 1948 men's 100m Hurdles - Silver
Duncan White - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Susanthika Jayasinghe - 2000 women's 200m - Silver
Susanthika Jayasinghe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Also SL is the only country in the region with two IAAF world championship medals, Holds many other Athletic records in Asia
It's safe to say SL punches well above it's weight in world sports representing South Asia
IamBengali
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2013 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
India came second
. I used to do boxing so this is good.It's all about investment bro, if Bangladesh, India and Pakistan invested more money and focused it more in schools we could be really good.
Your just naming sports, your not giving proper reasons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-time_Asian_Games_medal_table
Gibbs
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There is no reason that both Bangladesh and SL cannot be competitive in world sport without focusing on minority global sport like cricket.. Just needs dedication.. After all many Sri Lankans are genetically very close to Bengali's
India on the otherhand is a paradox.. With a humongous talent pool to choose from and resources only second to China.. Ideally it should dominate most of the sports it takes part in but It's the worst sporting nation on the planet per capita.. Many excuses are given but my Indian friend in Hong Kong summed it up perfectly, He said "India is a nation of sport fans, Not sportsmen/Women"
but id the right investments are made it may change but a sporting culture needs to be established not only in India but the whole region.. Take a cue from Australia and China
Actually per capita Bangladesh is the worst but yeah you are right in what you are saying. However our resouces are terrible, nowhere near China and not even second.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikemehalick/the-10-most-populated-countries-to-never-win-an-ol
Gibbs
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Thanks for the clarification..
I think India has done relatively well recently by focusing on traditionally strong sports like, Wrestling, Boxing, Shooting and archery.. Though Shooting and Archery does not need much athletism, This whole obsession of a minority sport like Cricket in the sub continent is one of the major reason that our countries are doing so poorly at global sports..Infact pre 96' WC win SL was a dominant force in Asian Athletics but since that the whole focus changed to Cricket.. Luckily SL is gradually moving away from that in recent years with Rugby taking prominence and back to Athletics.
Exactly, Cricket is holding back other sports in the sub-continent. What makes Sri Lanka successful is that it puts emphasis on other sports and with a smaller population its so much easier to control. I mean with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh its really hard to get all the resources to everyone. What I find funny is when south Asians are raised outside there country in Europe and USA they tend to be more interested in other sports for example I've seen Sri Lankan and Indian weightlifters in London and Pakistanis playing football. I've heard a lot about Sri Lankas rugby team, they're good.
Umair Nawaz
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do u have problem in comprehending my post?
I wrote ''Pakistan was only Country in Asia to be World Champion in 4 games at a time in 1994.''
Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/members-club/271709-sports-south-asia.html#ixzz2cEF59MXA
Okay but just because Pakistan had a good year in 1994 doesn't mean it has the richest history in Asia. But I must admit, Pakistanis sure know how too play Squash.
Umair Nawaz
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Stupid! im saying we became the only Asian nation who was world Champion in 4 games at a time!!!! that was in 94 when we won the World Snooker Championship marking 4th world title at a time for Pakistan.
we had Won 92 cricket WC.
94 hockey WC.
94 Snooker WC
and Squash well u know it..........All of these games was in our grasp in 94 making us only nation in Asia to do so.
This proves that we have riches history in Asia...this record is still unbroken i believe.
Ha I'm sorry but that's only 1 year. And apart from Cricket and Hockey those are niche sports. Do you seriously think Snooker is a active sport? The country with the richest history is China because they have actually won the Olympics. If you truly had a rich history then how come the last 3 Olympics you haven't won a single medal?
South Asian Games - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Look at that even throughout history in all time medals Pakistan has 700 less medals than India.
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