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Facts about history of Football in India.

1. Football was introduced in India to unify the Indian Army. India is home to some of the oldest football clubs in the world and the third oldest competition, The Durand Cup started in 1888.

2. In the 1800’s Calcutta became the hub of Indian Football and Sarada FC the oldest Indian Football club.

3. In 1889 India's oldest current team Mohun Bagan A.C. was founded as Mohun Bagan Sporting Club.
The first Indian Federation, the Indian Football Association, was founded in 1893 but did not have a single Indian on its board.

4. In the late 1930’s the Indian Football team used to frequently travel to countries in Asia Pacific.

5. The 1948 London Olympics was India's first major international tournament, where a predominately barefooted Indian team lost 2–1 to France in the opening match, failing to convert two penalties.

6. India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents. But the governing body AIFF decided against going to the World Cup, being unable to understand the importance of the event at that time. Reason shown by AIFF was that there was the cost of travel, although FIFA agreed to bear a major part of the travel expenses, lack of practice time, team selection issues and valuing Olympics over FIFA World cup.

7. The suggestion that India did not participate in the 1950 WC because they wanted to play barefoot which was banned by FIFA is completely untrue.

8. The period from 1951 to 1962 is considered the golden era in Indian football. Under the tutelage of legendary Syed Abdul Rahim India became the best team in Asia. The Indian team started the 1950s with victory in the 1951 Asian Games which they hosted.

9. At the 1956 Olympics they finished fourth, this is the second time India made second history in the world of football.

10. India participated in the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, Japan where they finished fourth.

Post the 1960s Football in India has seen a gradual decline with the team travelling less and losing important tournaments.

Lack of political and corporate interest has made sure that the finances required to fund football at grassroots never reached the needy footballers. However over the past few years certain corporate have taken keen interest in owning and managing football clubs as well as promoting a new league in the country called the Indian Super League (ISL).

It will take time to reach the glory days of the period between 1945-1962 however we hope the renewed interest of today can make that happen in the future.

regards

Sportzmap

Olympic Gold Quest: The dream of a billion strong Nation

On a daily basis we hear about lot of Not for profit organizations starting and shutting shops. In fact the number of these organizations is so big in a developing country like India that we seldom care. However there is one such Not for profit organization about which all of us sports lovers should know. It is the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) http://www.olympicgoldquest.in/index.php

Started in the year 2001 the sole aim of this organization is to help Indian Athletes win Olympic Gold Medals.

Over the year so many Olympic Events have been held but the tally of medals won by our boys and girls has been abysmal and many including us at Sportzmap believe that the onus for winning Olympic medals lies on the athletes as well as the society in which they live because it is an event which displays the sports culture of a country.

Through various schemes and development agendas the state as well as the central govts has been trying to motivate players so that they excel in their chosen sports however all of us know those efforts be it in terms of financial aid or equipments don’t land up in their desired destination. This makes the role of an organization like the OGQ more important.

OGQ aims to complement the efforts of the various govt agencies in identifying and funding the best and most deserving prospects for Olympic medals. OGQ brings together eminent personalities from sports as well as other sectors to create a system of funding and promoting the best sporting talent. As of now they are focused on eight individual disciplines viz. Shooting Athletics, Boxing, Wrestling, Archery, Swimming, Table-Tennis and Badminton as the ones in which the Indian Athlets have the strongest potential to win Olympic medals.

It was founded by sporting legends Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone and they were first tested during the 2012 London Olympics where four out of 6 Indian Olympic medal winners were supported by OGQ. The board of OGQ boasts of lot of legends like Leander Paes and Vishwanathan Anand, both of whom joined in the year 2010. The current CEO of OGQ is Viren Rasquinha, former India Hockey captain who after retiring from the sports got a management degree from the prestigious  Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

The team at OGQ is highly motivated and looking at their personal achievements we can be rest assured that the athletes selected by OGQ will be in good hands. However these few people no matter their stature cannot accomplish the task they have taken up without the general public support.

Support is not only required in terms of finance however also in the form of recognition and love. All of us as a country should get behind the team of OGQ as well as all other Olympians and encourage them to achieve glory for the nation.

Hoping the billion stong nation takes notice and gets behind its athletes.

 regards

Sportzmap.

Badminton Doubles Queens of India

It is not often that India produces great players in individual Sports. However in this is case we have two great players who have given us a lot to cheer in an individual sport i.e. badminton and that too consistently at World level.

We are talking about our very own Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa two players who have been consistently winning laurels for the country but hardly applauded accordingly.

Jwala Gutta-

To start with the senior player among the two, Jwala has been one of the top level doubles specialist for close to fifteen years now and has won the National  Badminton Championships a mindboggling 14 times till the year 2013. She has partnered with multiple players over the years and with everybody she has been successful.

In the earlier years she partnered Shruti Kurien with whom she won the nationals six straight years. Just before the New Delhi Commonwealth games in the year 2010 Jwala partnered with Ashwini and there has been no looking back. 

The list of her achievements is amazing and for the same she was awarded the Arjuna Award in the year 2011 which we believe was long overdue and she easily qualifies for Khel Ratna award.

Ashwini Ponnappa-

Ashwini also started her foray in badminton at a very early stage and from the beginning has been a specialist at doubles. She went on to win nationals in 2004, 05, 06 and 07. She later went on to win the Gold medal in mixed doubles and the team events in the South Asian Games held in 2010.

Hailing from Bangalore, her father was a National Hockey player and it was quite natural that she took up sports very seriously. She completed her schooling from Bangalore and later moved to Hyderabad to complete her Graduation.

Like Jwala, Ashwini also has been a great player for the country bringing numerous medals but hardly recognized by all for her achievements.

Jwala & Ashwini pairing-

Just before the 2010 CWG games to be hosted in New Delhi, Jwala and Ashwini came together to form a team and to the delight of the home crowd won the Gold in the Women’s Doubles event which was a first for the country. The pair has since then been consistently ranked among the Top twenty in the BWF World rankings reaching as high as No 10 in 2015. As on date they are ranked as the 15^th best pair in the Women’s Doubles pairing.

Jwala and Ashwini also won the silver medal at the 2014 CWG. They have also won the bronze medal at the Uber Cup and Asia Championship last year.

This article is not enough to summarise all the wins of this pair and we are leaving below links to their Badminton World Federation profiles for people to see what they have achieved-

Ashwini Ponnappa- http://bwfcontent.tournamentsoftware.com/profile/overview.aspx?id=F3875CB7-E471-43E6-85AB-E5491472A119

Jwala Gutta-http://bwfcontent.tournamentsoftware.com/profile/overview.aspx?id=D28DF6CB-3B5B-42DB-8347-5519A0117429

We wholeheartedly hope that this pair remains together for a long time to come, winning more medals for the country and also pray that all Indians respect, love and cherish their every loss or win because they play with all heart and need our support.

Regards

Sportzmap