Over the years, sportsmen of India and Pakistan have performed well. Both countries have numerous exceptionally brilliant athletes, many of whom went on to represent their countries in Olympics. The athletes highlighted here from India and Pakistan, are among the greatest of all time.
Top 3 Sportsmen of Pakistan
1. Jahangir Khan
Jahangir Khan was formerly Pakistan’s top-ranked squash player in the world. He is recognized as one of the best athletes in top-level professional sports. He competed in the World Amateur Individual Championship and went on to win the competition when he was only 15 years old. He dominated squash for many years, setting an unbeatable record by playing 555 games without losing from 1981 to 1986, which was also recorded in the Guinness World Record. Jahangir, whose name means “Conqueror of the World”, totally dominated squash for 14 years.
Jahangir received the prestigious British Open title for a record ten times in a row, the World Open eight times and was unbeaten for an incredible five and a half years. After his playing career came to an end, he was elected Vice-president of the Pakistan Squash Federation in 1997 and Vice-president of the World Squash Federation in 1998. The government of Pakistan has honoured Jahangir with the awards of Pride of Performance and the civil award of Hilal-e-Imtiaz for his achievements in squash. Additionally, he was recently awarded the Sportsman of the Millennium honour.
2. Imran Khan
He is a politician and a former cricketer from Pakistan. He has been listed as one of the most influential Muslims in the world. At the age of 18, he played his first game of international cricket against England in the 1971 Test series. He played English county cricket for Worcestershire from 1971 to 1976. When he came third at 139.7km/h in a fast-bowling competition in 1978 in Perth, he started to establish himself as one of the fastest bowlers in the world. He achieved a Test bowling rating of 922 points in January 1983 when performing against India. The ICC’s All-Time Test Bowling Rankings rank Khan’s form and performance third during this period.
Imran holds the honour of being Pakistan’s most successful cricket captain after leading Pakistan to its first-ever Cricket World Cup victory in 1992. Khan’s first year as captain was the peak of his legacy as a fast bowler as well as an all-rounder. He plays at position six in the batting order and has the second-highest all-time batting average (61.86) among Test batsmen. He was the fourth bowler and first Pakistani in the world record 362 Test cricket-wickets. He was awarded the Wisden Cricketer of the Year by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack in 1983. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Cricket Council in 2010. During his cricketing career, he won numerous Player of the Match awards.
3. Javed Miandad
He was a former Pakistani cricketer who played between 1975 and 1996. Pakistan’s most valuable batsman is Javed Miandad, who possesses a huge amount of batting talent and a very sharp cricketing intellect. In terms of his career, his six against India in Sharjah Cup is the pinnacle, but he is the highlight as the finest batsman Pakistan has produced who could go toe-to-toe with any bowler. He has been the captain of the Pakistani team. Of his 34 tests as captain, Pakistan won 14 and lost 6. At the Gaddafi Stadium, against India, he scored his highest ODI total.
The team that won the 1992 World Cup included Miandad in a key role. In the twenty years of his career, his test batting average never dropped below fifty. He was praised by his contemporaries Ian Chapelle as one of the finest batsmen in the history of cricket, while ESPNcricinfo referred to him as “the greatest batsman Pakistan has ever produced”. Javed Miandad is the first player to have played in six World Cups. In the 1986 Australia-Asia Cup which was held in Sharjah, he finished his innings with 116 not out in the final against India. This is still considered one of the most significant events in the history of ODI Cricket and he became a national hero. He is one of the six Pakistani players who have their names inscribed in the Lords’ Hall of Fame.
In 1986, he received the Pride of Performance Award. Miandad was honoured with the Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the President of Pakistan, in 1992, the third highest honour bestowed by Pakistan. He holds the world record for the maximum number of consecutive half-centuries in One Day Internationals.
Top 3 Sportsmen of India
1. Mary Kom
She is an Indian politician and amateur boxer who is currently serving the Rajya Sabha. She is the only female boxer to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship six times, who have been in the top three of each of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer to have won eight World Championship medals. In addition to the Olympic bronze, she has also won gold medals at the Asian and Commonwealth Games. Mary also won a silver medal at the 2008 Asian Women’s Boxing Championship in India, and her fourth straight gold medal at the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in China in 2008, followed by a gold medal at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam. She earned her fifth consecutive gold medal at the competition in 2010 after winning the Asian Women’s World Boxing Championships in Barbados.
In 2019, Mary’s Mom became the boxer with the most success in the world. In 2020, she received the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian accolade in India. Mary Kom’s life was covered in the third edition of “Global Indians 2022” by Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited. Dina Serto co-authored an autobiography, Unbreakable, about Mary Kom, which was published by Harper Collins in late 2013. Furthermore, Priyanka Chopra portrayed Kom in Mary Kom, a 2014 Hindi language documentary about her life. In 2013 and 2020, she was given the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan Awards. Additionally, she was awarded the Padma Shri in 2006, the Arjuna Award in 2003, INR 5 million in cash and two acres of land by the government of Manipur and many more.
2. Sania Mirza
She is an Indian Professional Tennis Player. Sania is an offensive baseliner player with a strong groundstroke who is renowned for using the sheer velocity of her groundstrokes to set up effective attacks. Sania became the first Indian player, after playing her competitive debut in 2003, to hold the position beneath 30 in the global rankings. She played her first international tournament in 1999 when she competed in the World Junior Championship, as a member of the Indian team, in Jakarta. Only two Indian women have participated on the WTA Tour, and Sania is the only one to be ranked in the top 100 singles.
Sania is the first woman to make her way to the second round of a major tournament and the only third Indian woman to play and win a match in the Open Era. Sania is the active player with the most WTA doubles titles won, apart from having 43 trophies. She has won numerous tournaments in her career. Time named Sania in October 2005, one of the “50 Heroes of Asia”. In March 2010, her name was added by Economic Times to the list of the “33 women who made India proud”. She has received numerous honours for her achievements and her contributions to Indian sports, such as the Arjuna Award, Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, and others. The Women’s Tennis Association ranked Sania No.1 in singles, from 2003 until she retired from singles in 2013.
3. Mikha Singh
Also known as The Flying Sikh, he was an Indian track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the Indian Army. He made a lot of records and collected lots of medals. He became quite famous thanks to his Olympic qualification and dream run at the Asian Gams. He represented India at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in the 400m competition, and his success there later made him the first Indian sprinter from an independent India to win a gold medal at the Games. His 400m national record stood for 38 years. He represented India at the Melbourne Summer Olympics in 1956, the Rome Summer Olympics in 1960, and the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 1964. He also won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games.
Mikha was the receiver of the esteemed Padma Shri Award. After his outstanding performance in the 1958 Asian Games, the government extended the offer to him. He was also given the Arjuna Award in 2001. It was General Ayub Khan who gave him the title of “The Flying Sikh of India” after his spectacular performance at the Asian Games. The movie “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” made him very well-known among young people. On the big screen, it represented his life very beautifully. Singh’s wax statue, created by sculptors of Madame Tussauds in London was unveiled in Chandigarh in September 2017. The statue is placed at Madame Tussauds Museum in New Delhi, India. In 2008, journalist Rohit Brijnath described him as “the finest athlete India has ever produced”.
Conclusion
Some sportsmen of India and Pakistan are the best of all time who are not just recognized by the people of their countries but around the world. These are the people who make their countries renowned and bring esteem.