Overseas Indian representation in Indian sports

The Overseas Indian representation in Indian sports refers to the participation of foreign nationals of Indian origin in international events of both senior and junior level representing the Republic of India. As India prohibits dual nationality, sports representation in international events with respect to Indian participation has generally followed the norm of selection of sportspeople of Indian nationality.

Despite this due to the ambiguity of representation law till 2008, many Overseas Indian sportspeople have represented India at international events. While individual sports such as tennis, figure skating etc, dominate Overseas Indian sportspeople representation, rugby union remains the only major team sport with Overseas Indian players,[1][2][3] until 2008 when the Overseas Indians were disqualified from representing India.

History

In India however, the National sports representation law stems from a circular issued by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in December 2008, wherein it directed all national sports federations that any sportsperson representing India at the international level must hold a valid Indian passport.[4] The rule was upheld in 2010 by the Delhi High Court in the Karm Kumar vs Union Of India and Ors.[5]

The Indian law, with respect to the eligibility of Overseas Indians representing India stands at odds with the eligibility criteria for national representation of any sports governing bodies since 2008 when the current regulations were enforced and Overseas Indian representation was abolished. Before 2008 order and 2011 enactment of National Sports Code, due to ambiguity and lack of any sports law in the country with respect to player representation in international events, many Overseas Indian sportspeople had represented India in certain sports such as tennis, winter sports, swimming, etc.[6][7]

Overseas Indian sportspeople representing India

This is a list of Overseas Indian sportspeople (both men and women) who have represented or are currently representing India in any sport at international level.

  • Players of Indian origin, who represented India while retaining their original nationality.
  • Players of Indian origin, who represented India while or after giving up their original nationality and taking up Indian citizenship.
  • Players who were born abroad but had Indian nationality by birth are not considered for the list.

Note:

  • Representation after 2008: Despite the 2008 rule change, a handful of Overseas Indians continued to represent India in certain individual sports such as tennis, winter sports, badminton etc., but this continued without Indian sports federations' support and also international rules for national representation remained unchanged. But while they represented India on an individual capacity at the international events, due to the withdrawal of the Indian sports federations' administrative and financial support,[8] they remained ineligible to represent India at multi-sport events such as Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games.
  • Dual citizenship for minors: Dual citizenship in India is allowed in certain cases of minor children, as those who are born outside the territory of India can obtain Indian citizenship through descent (by Section 4 of The Citizenship Act, 1955) as well as of the foreign country (by Jus soli, e.g. United States). Thus the minors in such cases can remain dual citizens till 18 upon which they will have to choose only one citizenship.[9] This has enabled some minor Overseas Indians to represent India post 2008, but will become ineligible if they choose the foreign citizenship upon attaining majority.
  • Status of Unrecognised sports: Certain major sports such as Mixed martial arts (MMA) have not been recognised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (India) as a sport in India, which are instead held as events. The Indian MMA federations do not form a part of the National Sports Federations and thus they are not covered under the National Sports Code 2011. Thus the Overseas Indian fighters can represent India as individual representatives at professional MMA fights as they do not come under the purview of any sports federation.[10]
Color key
  •   Acquired Indian nationality

Team sports

Cricket

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Lall Singh  Malaysia 1932 [11]
Robin Singh  Trinidad and Tobago 1989–2001 Cricket World Cup [12]

Football

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Balai Dey  Pakistan 1969–1970 Merdeka Tournament [13]
Arata Izumi  Japan 2013–2014 AFC Challenge Cup, SAFF Championship [14]
Sunny Dhaliwal  Canada 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup [15]

Field hockey

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Trevor Fernandes  Tanzania 1971–1973 [16]

Rugby union

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Manmandir Singh Samra  United Kingdom 2004–2008 [17][1]
Simon Patel Knowles  United Kingdom 2004–2006 [1]
Amarveer Singh Ladhar  United Kingdom 2004–2006 [1]
Ajay Sabharwal  United Kingdom 2004–2006 [1]
Alexander Walker  United Kingdom 2004 [18]
Christopher Walker  United Kingdom 2004 [18]
Francis Brown  United Kingdom 2004–2008 [19][18]
Timothy Wilkes  United Kingdom 2006 [1]

Individual sports

Boxing

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Zoramthanga Burma 1989–1990 World Championships, Commonwealth Games [20]

Tennis

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Prakash Amritraj  United States 2002–2013 Grand Slams, Davis Cup [21]
Stephen Amritraj  United States 2003–2008 [22]
Shikha Uberoi  United States 2005–2011 Asian Games, Fed Cup [23]
Sunitha Rao  United States 2007–2009 Summer Olympics, Fed Cup [24]
Kanika Vaidya  Singapore
 United States 		2008–2018 [25][26]
Krisha Mahendran  United States 2022– [27][28]
Aishi Bisht  United States 2022– [29][30]
Vihaan Reddy  United States 2023–2024 [31][32]

Figure skating

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Ami Parekh  United States 2006–2014 Worlds, Four Continents [33]
Amar Mehta  United States 2007 World Juniors [34]
Yoniko Eva Washington  United States 2008–2010 Worlds [35]
Mayuri Bhandari  United States 2008 [36][37]
Anavi Tekriwal  United States 2013 [38]
Shreya Saha Dalal  United States 2015 [39]
Arunima Verabelli  United States 2017 [40]
Tara Prasad  United States 2020– Four Continents [41]

Squash

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Karm Kumar  United Kingdom 2006 Asian Junior Championships [4]

Swimming

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Ankur Poseria  United States 2006–2008 Summer Olympics, World Championships, Asian Games [42]

Shooting

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Sohrab Singh Gill  United States 2007 Asian Championships [43]

Chess

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Akshat Chandra  United States 2009–2012 [44][45]
Tarun Kanyamarala  Ireland 2014–2017 [46][47]
Trisha Kanyamarala  Ireland 2014–2017 [48][47]
Amaya Agarwal  England 2022–2023 [49][50]
Anay Agarwal  England 2022–2023 [51][50]
Ashwath Kaushik  Singapore 2022 [52][53]

Gymnastics

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Veronika Yadav  Ukraine 2017– [54][55][56]

Badminton

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Srivedya Gurazada  United States 2019–2022 [57][58]

Skiing

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Leona Dogra   Switzerland 2019 [59][60]

Other sports

Mixed martial arts (Pro MMA)

Sportsperson Nationality Years Notable events Ref
Arjan Bhullar  Canada 2017– UFC, ONE FC [61][62]
Gurdarshan Mangat  Canada 2019– ONE FC [63]

See also

References

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