If you go by the results produced at the highest level, Dhyan Chand and Viswanathan Anand are the two greatest sportsmen India produced. (Read previous posts on the subject here and here.)
No one else comes even close to them.
Playing out Anand's last game on my PC was such a thrill. Although even a chess-toddler like me could make out that it certainly was not one of the best chess games ever played.
K Viswanathan, Anand's father says:"...I doubt if whether there is another sportsperson in India who has achieved so much and made the nation so proud. But it's a pity to see cricket eating up all other sports...." (The Times of India, May 13, 2010)
Sir, if only, we could organise Chess-IPL to "promote" chess.
"...Worse than that, the IPL’s behaviour implies that if discrimination is profitable, discrimination is legitimate. If bigotry pays, then bigotry prevails. The whole affair undermined the IPL’s globalising claims and compromised India’s status as the epicentre and champion of the modern game. You might be able to watch IPL matches in real time in Japan but you could not watch Shahid Afridi or Umar Gul. The BCCI was able to distance itself from this embarrassment by pointing to the autonomous powers of the franchise owners.
Australian cricket historian Gideon Haigh, a persistent and acute critic of the IPL, observed that part of its appeal was that it was a tournament which the home nation was guaranteed to win. Whatever the final score, India triumphed. Apparently, the IPL franchise owners concluded that the presence of Pakistani players would pollute that triumph..."
(MIKE MARQUSEE, Frontline, May 08 - 21, 2010)
Therefore, in Chess-IPL, we have to make sure Anand doesn't lose to a Pakistani or Chinese.