The Indian subcontinent is oozing out sports aura in the recent past. Have you noticed too? The country has been fast developing in the sports sector hosting their biggest events in 2017 – the U17 FIFA world cup, the annual edition of IPL, ISL and other leagues. We now have a league for almost every sport famous in India – right from Hockey to Cricket. Such a pride to hold being born in this sports-loving nation. All of this started with the huge cricket craze and now has jumped on to dear sports like Badminton. The love and support for sports have grown manifolds with improvements in performances by the International players bringing back laurels to the nation.
Highlights of India’s Sports Journey in 2017
India had a great outing as far as 2017 was concerned with Kidambi Srikanth being the stand-out performer who became the first Indian shuttlers to enter 3 consecutive super-series finals and also the fourth player to ever win four super series titles in one year. He took home the Indonesian open, Australian open, Denmark open and French open. The next big highlight was the most expected event of the year for India, the U17 FIFA world cup where the England team went on to win the tournament by beating Spain 5-2 in the finals.
Although it was almost the end of the year, Rohit Sharma sealed the icing on the cake with a blazing 3rd 200 against Sri Lanka at the Mohali Stadium. With this, he sealed the status of one of the best ODI players ever to have played the sport.
Not only this, many other surreal moments were also experienced as far as 2017 was concerned and the Indian sports stars did a great job at outshining on the international front.
Leisure sports and its development
Leisure sports is gaining a rapid involvement in the recent years and the 2016-2017 period has been one of the most redefining stages as far as this sector is concerned. People had a lack of involvement in sports due to reduced facilities to play the sport and shortage of space in the city. Right now, this issue has been taken care of. If we take the whole country, a study has said that there are around 15 lakh sports facilities spread throughout the country. Maybe all these sports facilities are not open to the public but an effort can be initiated to make it happen. We have seen at least a 100 new sports venues that have come up in 2017 in the Bangalore. This is solely because of the enthusiasm that the crowd has shown towards this idea. The number is set to increase nationally and more sports-based Fitness ideas are set to develop amongst the crowd. This has slowly reduced the number of people who are dependent only on Gyms for Fitness and has imparted the idea of Fitness through sports. Based on a study conducted, the number of people who took to Fitness sports was 59.6% in 2011 and has increased to 62.7% in 2016. Also, the number of people who took up racket sports rose from 11.9% in 2011 to 13.7% in 2016 which clearly indicates why there was a sudden outburst of Badminton venues in the country. This is said to grow widely in 2018 with more venues coming up in every part of the country.
Apart from the conventional sports, many fun sports like Bubble Football and Soap Football have also garnered attention amongst the sport-loving crowd. People throng in huge numbers to experience the thrill and the new idea of having fun in a group. You can check out the 3 Soap Football Hotspots in India.
Some people have also started going the modern way of adapting “Sports Resolutions” for the new year. Apart from the general New year resolutions of finishing bucket lists, to-dos and donts, we see people wanting to make sports a core part of their everyday activity to bring about a huge change in their life.
Here’s a list of 5 people who vowed to adapt Sports to experience positive change in the coming year.
What has India got in store for the year 2018?
As promised by Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, the Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, the Khelo India campaign will be kickstarted costing 1756 crores for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20. This campaign will make sure that 150 schools and 20 universities in the country will provide young talents with an opportunity to pursue a career in both education and sports excellence.
The 2018 Men’s Hockey World Cup will be held in Bhubaneshwar, India from November 28 to December 16. Let’s hope that India finishes stronger and bigger this year. Apart from this, we have a lot in store this year, from IPL, ISL, Pro Kabaddi League, Premier Badminton League and much more.
India is getting ready to play in 2018. Are you gonna join too?
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