Kapil Dev received the Prudential World Cup 1983 after defeating West Indies in the Final
#5 Hockey would have been India’s No. 1 sport
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The Indian hockey team which won the gold medal in 1936 Summer Olympics
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Hockey was the most popular sport in India from its early days, with the national team being the undisputed champions of the sport – winning eight gold medals in the Summer Olympics between 1928 and 1980. Their domination was the main reason behind the sport being the most popular in the country.
The World Cup win for the Indian cricket team in 1983 and a string of poor performances by the hockey team around that time were instrumental in cricket becoming popular and hockey fading away. The Indian hockey team failed miserably for the next few years and it was only at the 2016 Olympics, that they qualified for the knockout stages after 36 years.
Had India not won the World cup, it is highly unlikely that hockey would have faded away into oblivion and paved the way for cricket to become the numero uno sport in the country.
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About the author
Arya Sekhar Chakraborty
Arya is a cricket journalist with around 8 years of experience who writes informative listicles and is in charge of text commentary at Sportskeeda. He is a graduate in Journalism, Psychology, and English, and has previously worked for websites such as CricTracker, SportzWiki, Cricket Addictor, Cricfit, OneCricket, and Cricket Exchange. His vast experience has led him to know the pulse of his readers and he cross-checks information from a number of credible sources before writing a single word for their sake.
A former Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) U14 and U16 player, Arya's tryst with cricket began after watching Sachin Tendulkar in action during his childhood. He is an ardent fan of Mumbai Indians (MI) owing to Tendulkar's initial involvement and also bleeds blue for his national team. He is an admirer of Test cricket as he feels the red-ball format teaches one about every facet of life.
Arya, who feels ODIs should not be completely replaced with T20Is owing to the former's pacing and charm, would like to go back in time to 1998 and watch the Master Blaster in action. He has experience in interviewing a few Bengali cricketers such as Kazi Junaid Saifi, Shib Shankar Pal, Sayan Ghosh and Prayas Ray Barman. He has also translated a couple of Bengali cricket books, and made Indian Premier League (IPL) pre-match videos.
He likes to spend time with his family and binge on web series during his spare time.
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