Anand is a runaway winner

Viswanathan Anand has emerged DNA’s ‘Sportsperson Of The Last Six Decades’. In a poll conducted among sportspersons, cutting across different disciplines, the Indian Grandmaster beat the other contenders by a mile. The World No 1 chess player got 431 points. He emerged as the undisputed King of Indian sports.

The contest for the second and third place was neck-and-neck with former India cricket captain Kapil Dev pipping former All-England badminton champion Prakash Padukone by a slender margin. Kapil, who led India to glory in the 1983 World Cup, was just 27 points ahead of the ace shuttler of yesteryears, who polled 302 to Kapil’s 329.

Little Master Sachin Tendulkar was a distant fourth with 279 points, while the original ‘Little Master’, Sunil Gavaskar is in sixth place with 254 points. The sprint queen of yore, PT Usha, was fifth while Milkha Singh came seventh. The Flying Sikh, an enigma in Indian athletics, got 226 points.

It is clear that Paes will be remembered more for his Atlanta Olympics bronze than for his recent exploits in the doubles circuit as India’s Davis Cup hero and captain is eighth in the list.

Curiously enough, there is no place for India’s latest tennis sensation Sania Mirza. Nor for Paes’ estranged doubles partner Mahesh Bhuptahi. The mercurial Dhanraj Pillay is ninth in the poll with166 points, with ace shooter and Athens Olympics silver winner Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore 10th with 160 points.