Sports Played in Mumbai

The term ‘Sports’ is differently pronounced by different languages. Derived from the French word ‘Desport’, meaning leisure time, American dictionary relates the term ‘Sports’ with the physical activities, other languages also define the sport according to their requirement. For instance Persian refer the term Sports with ‘root bord’ which is related to feeling of winning, Chinese refer the term sport to ‘tiyu’ which is related to physical training. No doubt that the same term is differently used by different languages however their meaning is same, which is related to the physical activity performed during course of leisure time and which is based on set of certain rules which are to be followed by every one involved in it.

For a layman a sport can be described as a kind of physical activity that is performed in discipline by set of certain rules, this activity when played between two persons or group of person is known as competition.

Last two decades have witnessed India emerging as the supreme authority in the various games. Various players from different sports viz cricket, badminton, tennis, chess etc have taken the name of Indian continent to great heights and have marked India as a supreme power in these games. These games have produced a huge fleet of players who are specialized in their fields.

Mumbai the vibrant, exotic and colourful city of India is proud to give India some legendary players who have established themselves as the shining planets in the universe of sports especially in the game of cricket. Players from Ajit Wadekar to master blaster Sachin Tendulkar all were born and brought up in Mumbai, these players have set such milestones that cannot be achieved by any player in coming few decades.

No doubt Hockey is the national game of India but is deprived due to poor performance by the players and due to increasing prestige of cricket but then also most of the players in Indian Hockey team are from Mumbai.

Unlike, other states the most popular game played in Mumbai is cricket which played at every little street of Mumbai. Recently a new form of cricket has emerged in the scenario often known as ‘Gully Cricket’ or a road side cricket which is played in the congested streets called ‘Gully’ on every Sunday or on any holiday. The Ranji Trophy Team of Maharashtra has most of the players coming from Mumbai. Apart from this with the introduction of new format of one day cricket i.e., 20-20 matches, the team of Mumbai has its strong team as Mumbai Indians participating in the Indian Premier League. Mumbai has proudly organized various International cricket matches including the finals and semi finals of various International trophies.

After cricket the most famous sports in Mumbai is Football which is especially played during the monsoon season. The FIFA world cup is watched with huge enthusiasm. Despite of this there are numerous clubs and academies providing proper coaching of different  games such as squash, billiards, badminton, table tennis, golf, boxing etc. India’s only rugby club is located in Mumbai. Recently another excited sport which has attracted Mumbains towards it is Formula 1 racing contest. However other sports such Volleyball and Basket ball are also played in schools and colleges.