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There are no prizes for guessing the most popular sport of Karnataka. Like elsewhere in India, the passion of cricket sweeps through its mass psyche in an overwhelming manner. However, Karnataka sports a sporting culture, which is not limited to only cricket.
The culture of sports of Karnataka is vibrant. Karnataka has produced a number of stalwarts in international cricket. The 'wall' of the Indian cricket team Rahul Dravid, the ace Indian leg spin bowler Anil Kumble; who is the highest wicket taker for India in the test cricket, are the recent stars of the Indian cricket, hailing from Karnataka. However, Karnataka had a number of cricketing heroes from the yesteryears too. Gundappa Viswanath- the 'touch magician', Chandrasekhar, who happened to be the hero of the historic Oval Test victory in 1971, EAS Prassana, Javgal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Syed Kirmani…the list is truly impressive.
Bangalore is one of the venues for international cricket matches played between India and other countries. The Sports Authority of India, which is the premier sports institute in India, is located in Bangalore. The international one day matches are played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, which is located in Bangalore. The National Cricket Academy, which trains young budding cricket players to groom them for international cricket, also functions from this stadium.
However, besides cricket, the popular sports of Karnataka also include football, hockey and tennis among others. The state's famous non-cricket sportspersons include the likes of Nisha Millet (swimming), Mahesh Bhupathi (tennis) and Prakash Padukone (badminton). Karnataka has also produced a number of hockey players, who represented the country at a national level. In fact, in the district of Kodagu, hockey is a passion. Hockey actually finds such a special place in the Kodava culture that they even have a Kodava Hockey Festival every year and what's more, this hockey festival has been entered in the Limca Book of Records as the largest hockey tournament in the world.
Prakash Padukone won the All England Badminton Championships in 1980, and Mahesh Bhupathi has won many grand slam titles in doubles and mixed doubles. Then there is Pankaj Advani, the maestro of cue sports, who hails from Bangalore. He has won three world titles by the tender age of 20, which includes Amateur World Snooker Championship in 2003 and the World Billiards Championship in 2005.
The people of Karnataka and tourists to Karnataka, have interest in a range of adventure sports like angling, rock climbing, go-karting, aero sports and water sports. Karnataka has vast areas of forests with plenty of mountains, which make for a perfect setting for camping and trekking for people who love adventure. The Western Ghats, with its wide biodiversity hotspots, gives the trekker an experience of a lifetime.
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