The Limca Book of Records – always an interesting read!

The 26th edition of the Limca Book of Records (LBR) was launched by Coca-Cola India on the first day of the Jaipur Literature Festival. The 2015 edition highlights literature with a special section, but also recognizes the incredible achievements by Indians in various other fields.

Launched in 1990, the LBR is the second book of records after the Guinness Book of World Records.

One of two chapters in the book is dedicated to sports, which features some remarkable individual and team achievements by Indians over the years.

Cricket leads the sports section

Cricket is by far the most popular game in India. And the LBR has recognised feats of several cricketers since the beginning of the game. Sachin Tendulkar is the highest run scorer in one-day internationals with 18,426 runs including 49 centuries – most cricket fans already know that. But what very few know is that Robin Uthappa holds the record for the most runs on debut by an Indian; he scored 86 runs against England in 2006.

Mithali Raj is the only Indian women to register a double century in Tests. She achieved the feat when she scored 214 against England at Taunton on August 16, 2002. Meanwhile, Kapil Dev has twice taken a wicket on the first delivery of the match! He dismissed Mohsin Khan off the first ball at Jalandhar against Pakistan in 1983-84 and Jimmy Cook at Durban against South Africa in 1992-93.

One of the more nostalgic records documented in the book is that India, captained by Vijay Hazare, won its first Test match in 1952 against England. And one of the more eye-popping records is that 13-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal achieved a unique all-round feat when he scored a triple century and also claimed a 10+ wicket haul playing for Anjuman Islam Urdu High School in the Giles Shield Cricket Tournament in Mumbai in January 2014.

Unique football achievements

East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have played a whopping 307 times against each other. The former has won 117 times while the latter has won 85.

A matter of pride for all Indians is that the national team won the Nehru Cup thrice in a row in Delhi – in 2007 and 2009 at the Ambedkar stadium and in August 2012 at the Nehru stadium. 2012 skipper Sunil Chhetri, who was the Man of the Tournament with nine goals, is India’s top scorer in the Nehru Cup.

Churchill Brothers S.C. has scored the maximum number of goals in the NFL/I-League — 623 goals in 346 matches. Meanwhile, Bhaichung Bhutia is India’s most successful captain; he won 5 tournaments during his stint as skipper of the national side.

A nice bit of trivia: Dipanker Roy scored in 9.33 seconds for Bengal vs Karnataka in the 2000 Santosh Trophy. This is the fastest goal ever scored by an Indian!

Achievements in various sports disciplines

Indian’s first Asiad gold in women’s athletics came in 1954, when the 4×100 m relay team won gold, clocking 49.5 seconds at the Manila Asian Games. Further, Jeev Milkha Singh is the first Indian to play at the prestigious US Open golf tournament, when he participated in 2002.

India`s most consistent performers in Commonwealth Games badminton are Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa, while Jaspal Rana has won as many as 23 gold medals at the South Asian Games. Interestingly, Dola Banerjee and Rahul Banerjee are the only brother and sister pair to represent India at the Olympic Games.

Additionally, Chief National Coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu is India’s lone ‘Three-Star’ boxing coach. He’s been with the Indian team since 1993.

Many such unique achievements feature in the LBR. With the book being officially launched in Jaipur, Indians can get their hands on the latest edition and feast on the wealth of statistics it contains.