Viswanathan Anand has single-handedly put chess on to the sporting map internationally: Rahul Bose

The Indian men’s cricket team might have crashed out of the T20 World Cup, but the country still has three other sporting reasons to cheer — Viswanathan Anand retaining the world chess title, the Indian men’s hockey team beating world champions Australia in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, and the Indian women’s cricket team beating Sri Lanka (the same country which knocked the men out) handsomely to sail into the semis of the T20 World Cup.

Of these three wins, it’s Anand’s feat that has caught the imagination of the people.

Says actor Rahul Bose, “Viswanathan Anand has single-handedly put chess onto the sporting map internationally. His is a kind of popularity that has endured despite our passion for cricket. It’s because he is a winner in every sense of the word.”

Actress Raima Sen adds, “It’s sad that we remain a cricket-crazy nation and completely ignore the multitudes of talent that we have in other sports. I am sure not a lot of people would be aware of Viswanathan Anand’s achievements, but at the same time they can very easily rattle off Sachin Tendulkar’s Test scores.”

Actress Neha Dhupia says, “I have always been supportive to all kinds of sport — cricket, tennis, or badminton. However, I feel cricket gets lopsided attention against other sports. There is an opportunity to grow all other sports in this country besides cricket — the new breed of tennis players, the Formula One team is all to watch out for.”

Adman Prahlad Kakkar, however, has an interesting take. He says, “Cricket is being followed widely because there’s still betting involved and people want to see girls taking their clothes off. I feel we should laud the Indian hockey team as they did an amazing job. They were down to the dregs before they bounced back to beat the world champions.”