Sports And Awards in Bihar
Bihar State Sports Council was formed in 1961, which was reorganised in 1966 and 2013. As per the Bihar Sports Act, 2013, the Bihar State Sports Council was reorganised. It mainly works for giving advice to sports related matters and maintaining coordination with other organisations. Education Minister is the Director of this Council in Bihar.
Important Sports in Bihar (Bihar GK in English)
Some of the famous sports which are played in Bihar :
Hockey
➤ Hockey started in Bihar in 1904 at Patna College. In 1928, in Amsterdam Olympic, India participated for the first time and won Gold medal. At that time, Jaipal Singh from Bihar (now in Jharkhand) was the Captain of the winning team.
➤ Bihar Hockey Association (Hockey Bihar) was established in 1986. Before it, Bihar Olympic Association was the governing body of sports of Hockey in Bihar.
➤ Kalinga Stadium located in Danapur Cantt organises hockey competition every year. Similarly in Patna, Postal Department organises All India Hockey Tournament.
➤ Important hockey players are Anand Kumar Bara, Sachin Horo, Sachin Johnson Purty, Dolly Kumari, Aprajita Kumari, Anila Sosan and Shilwanti Minjur.
Football
➤ Football was started in Bihar by the English Shield in 1897. This shield was associated with Patna Athletics Association. The Patna Athletics Association organises ‘A’ and ‘B’ divisions of football tournaments in Bihar.
➤ Shri C Prasad was the most famous football player in Bihar. He was the Captain of the Indian football team in 1971. He was awarded Arjun Award in the same year.
The Asian School Football Championship was organised in Patna in the year of 1997.
➤ Bihar Football Association is the governing body of football in Bihar. Its affiliated with the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
➤ Important football players are Mewalal, Subhash Malik, PK Banerji, Arun Das, Anwar Husain, Ashok Banerji, Abdul Lateef, Prabhakar Misra, Davendra Yadav, Badri Prasad, Vidhan Chandra Mishra, Avdesh Kumar Sinha, Subodh Kajiwal, Shatrughan Rai, Arun Jha and Rameshwar Lal.
Lawn Tennis
➤ Lawn tennis started in Bihar in 1912 at Bankipur (early Patna) and Patna New club. In the same year the Bihar Lawn Tennis Council was established.
➤ Davis Cup Tournaments were organised in Bihar in 1930 and 1970 with British and Pakistani teams, respectively.
➤ The famous sportsperson GhulamMohammad has also worked as a Coach in Patna.
➤ Important lawn tennis players are N Sen, Hari Verma, Dinesh Mohan, Chandra Bhushan, Surendra Kumar, Shailya Kumar Upadhyay and so on.
Kabaddi
➤ Kabaddi is also played at the state level in Bihar. ‘Patna Pirates’ is a state level Kabaddi team which is based in Patna. This team is a part of the Pro-Kabaddi League.
➤ This team is owned by Rajesh V Shah and is coached by Ram Mehar Singh. The Captain of this team is Pradeep Narwal. The home ground of this team is Patliputra Sports Complex, Patna. Patna Pirates is the first team to play 100 Vivo Pro-Kabaddi League.
Cricket
➤ Bihar Cricket Association was established in 1935. It is the governing body of Cricket activities in Bihar. After some dispute Committee of Administrators (COA) approved BCA as the authorised body for organising Cricket in Bihar.
BCA was suspended by BCCI in 1999-2000.
➤ Bihar cricket team has played for domestic Ranji Tournament from the year 1936-37.
➤ Heman Trophy and Randhir Verma Shield are associated with cricket.
➤ Patna provides national level facilities in cricket. In the year 1998-99, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was a part of Bihar U-19 Squad and made his debut from Bihar in the Ranji Trophy in the year of 1999-2000.
➤ After 1999-2000, Bihar cricket team now became a part of Ranji Trophy Tournament in the year 2018-19.
➤ Saba Karim from Bihar was included in Indian cricket team as wicket keeper. Kirti Azad, Ramesh Saxena and Randhir Singh, Hari Gidwani, Subroto Banerji, Tilak Raj, Shakher Sinha, Rakesh Shukla and Baldev are important national level cricket players.
Regional Games in Bihar
➤ Important regional games in Bihar are Chika, Sui-Dhaga race, Gulli-Danda, Lagadi, Denga-Pani, Sack-race (Bora-daud) and so on.
➤ In order to encourage village youths to take participation in sports/games, the Bihar State Sports Authority is working as per the direction given by the Indian Government to identify and popularise different types of sports and it also organises sports tournaments / competitions at both district and state levels.
Important Sports persons of Bihar
| Sports | Sports Persons |
| Archery | Nirmal Kumar Singh, Purnima Mahto, Rajindar Guiya |
| Athletics | Ompal Singh (Long Jump), Ajmer Singh (Discus throw), Arvind Patra, Shivnath Singh (Marathon), Iqbal Singh (Shot Put) |
| Badminton | Kaveri Ghosh, Ragu Chatterjee, Mohan Ahuja Ali Akbar, Sarojini |
| Baseball | Eshan Ahmad, Sunil Singh, Yechazuddin, Sudhanshu Shekhar, Ajai Tiwari, Smita Pal |
| Basketball | Sunil Kumar Panda, Rajesh Shrivastava |
| Billiards | Kumar Adhanand Sinha, Kumar Shyamnand Sinha, Kumar Taranand Sinha |
| Chess | Vishal Sarin, Pappu Ramani, V. Koshi, Sanjeev Kumar Dolan Champa Bose. |
| Shooting | Jagannath Singh, KK Jha, Jagannath Mishra, Shekhar Bhagat, Pranab Sinha, SK Rai Chaudhary |
| Volleyball | Vedanand Singh, Himanshu Shekhar Jha, Mahesh Lal Das, Sudha Singh |
| Weight Lifting | Indrajeet Singh, Sukh Dev Singh, Ratan Kumar Basak |
Stadiums in Bihar
➤ Many sports stadiums have been constructed in Bihar in order to organise sports tournaments/ competitions in the state.
➤ There are three big stadiums in Patna, out of which Moin-ul-Haq Stadium is the biggest and has a capacity of 25,000 observers. A number of national and international level football and cricket tournaments / matches have been organised in this stadium. For example, in 1996, World Cup Cricket match between Zimbabwe and Kenya was played at this stadium.
➤ Patliputra Sports Complex is located in Kankarbagh in Patna. It is a venue of many indoor games in Bihar.
➤ Mithilesh Stadium is also located at Patna where all types of sports are organised.
Important Stadiums in Bihar
| Stadium | Place |
| Akshaywat Rai Stadium | Hajipur |
| Basawan Singh Indoor Stadium | Hajipur |
| Indira Gandhi Stadium | Purnea |
| Jagjivan Stadium | Khagaul |
| Khudiram Bose Stadium | Muzaffarpur |
| Manoj Kamalia Stadium | Patna City |
| Mithilesh Stadium | Patna |
| Moinul Haq Stadium | Patna |
| Pataliputra Sports Complex | Patna |
| Rajendra Stadium | Chapra |
| Sanjay Gandhi Mini Stadium | Patna |
| Secretariat Indoor Stadium | Patna |
| Subramanium Stadium | Gaya |
| Veer Kunwar Singh Stadium | Arrah |
Important Tournaments of Bihar (Bihar GK in English)
Important sports tournaments organised in Bihar :
School Tournament In order to develop opportunities of school sports tournaments and provide more facilities to sportsperson, the Sports Department has categorised 19 different sports into 5 categories. Every year the Sports Department organises school sports in different disciplines at block, district, division and state level for different age groups.
Major Dhyanchand Hockey Tournament Every year state level Inter-District Major Dhyanchand Hockey Tournament is organised by Directorate. The winning team represents the state in All India Nehru Hockey Tournament on government expenditure.
Women Sports Competitions Women sports festival has been organised in Bihar from last 16 years by the Bihar State Sports Authority. It is important for girls and women to develop interest in sports, recreation, self-defence, consciousness for self-respect, interest towards equality, awareness of sports culture and develop efficiency in sports and create records. The state provides training to the selected sportswomen, who represent the state at national level competitions.
Sports Associations in Bihar (Bihar GK in English)
Bihar has very active sports associations working in the state. These
Bihar Football Association It was formed in 1986. It organises junior and senior level football competitions. It also gives training for the games.
Bihar Olympic Association It is the highest institution for sports development. Its main work is to direct other organisations and helping them to participate in different sports.
BiharHockey Association It was formed in 1986. It looks after training and organisation of hockey competition for boys hockey players. Before the organisation of this association, Bihar Olympic Association was responsible to conduct this sport in the state.
Bihar State Cricket Association It was established in 1935. It looks after preparation, training and organisation of cricket for the players. It also evaluates players preparation for their selection. It also organises junior and senior level cricket competitions/matches.
Bihar State Girl ’s Hockey Association This gives training to girl hockey players and also organises competition for them.
Bihar State Chess Association It was formed in 1937. It looks after training of senior and junior level players and also organises competition for them.
Bihar State Amateur Athletic Association It organises state open meet and promotes athletes for state and national level competition.
Other Sports Association in Bihar
Besides these, there are other associations which also conduct sports competitions and provide training to sportspersons. These
➤ Bihar Basketball Association l Bihar Badminton Association
➤ Bihar Volleyball Association l Bihar Table Tennis Association
➤ Bihar Tennis Association l Bihar Blind Sports Association
➤ Bihar Women Football Association l Bihar Women Volleyball Association
➤ Bihar Wushu Association l Bihar Deaf Sports Association
➤ Bihar Roller Skating Association l Bihar Boxing Association
➤ Bihar Cycling Association l Bihar Taekwondo Association
➤ Bihar Billiards Association l Bihar Rifle Shooting Association
➤ Bihar Carrom Association l Bihar Baseball Association
➤ Bihar Kabaddi Association
Bihar State Sports Authority (Bihar GK in English)
➤ It was formed on 31st July, 1986. This authority gets financial assistance from both the State and Central Governments. It is an autonomous institution.
➤ It is run by Director General, Director and Secretary and its Ex-Officio is Chief Minister of the state.
➤ The aims of this authority are to organise sports competitions from block level to state level, to search outstanding sports persons and provide them training, enable them to take active participation in both state and national level competitions and provide them financial assistance.
➤ Bihar State Government provides rewards, honours to outstanding sportpersons for their contributions in the sports on the occasions of Independence Day, Republic Day and other national/regional level occasions.
➤ The award get cash rewards, symbol/logo, citation and a shawl.
Famous Sports Personalities of Bihar (Bihar GK in English)
Cricket
Sayed Saba Karim
➤ He was born in Patna in the year 1967. He is a former Indian cricketer who was a right-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper.
➤ In the year 1990-91, he got his career’s best score (234 scores) in Ranji Trophy against Odisha. He was appointed by BCCI as General Manager, Cricket Operations on 1st January, 2018.
Kirti Azad
➤ He was born in Darbhanga in the year 1959. He is a former Indian cricketer turned politician who has played 7 Test Matches and 25 One Day Internationals (ODIs) from 1980 to 1986.
➤ He is the son of the former Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Bhagwat Jha Azad. He was a right handed batsman and a off-spinner.
➤ He was an MP of Lok Sabha for three terms but lost 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Subroto Banerjee
➤ He was born in Patna in the year 1969. He is a former Indian cricketer. He has played in one Test Match and in 6 One Day Internationals (ODIs) from 1991 to 1992.
➤ He has also played in the 1992 World Cup.
Veer Pratap Singh
➤ He was born in Nalanda in the year 1992. He is an Indian cricketer. He is a right-arm medium seam bowler who plays first class cricket for West Bengal. He has also played for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL.
Kavita Roy
➤ She was born in Hajipur in the year1980. She is a former Indian cricketer, who is a right-handed batsman and bowls right-arm medium pace. She has played only One Day International (ODI), which was her debut in the year 2000.
Anukul Rai
➤ He was born on 30th, November 1998, at village Bhirha in Samastipur district. He is playing for Jharkhand in domestic level and Mumbai Indians in IPL. He was the part of Indian team in under 19 World Cup.
Athletics
Shivnath Singh
➤ He was born in Majharia village in Buxar in the year 1946. He was a great long-distance runner. He represented the country twice in the Asian Games and also in the Summer Olympics twice in the year 1976 and 1980.
➤ In the year of 1978, he created the record in the India National Marathon with a best time (2:12 : 00) at Jalandhar. He died in 2003, after a prolonged illness.
Sharad Kumar
➤ He was born in Patna in the year 1992. He is an Indian para high jumper. He is also a former World No. 1 Athlete in this category.
➤ He won a gold medal in the high jump and created a record of being World No. 1 Rank in the 2014 Asian Para Games. He also won gold medal in the 2018 Asian Para Games which was held in Indonesia. He also got a silver medal in 2017 IPC World Championship.
Chess
Sriram Jha
➤ He was born in Madhubani in the year 1976. He is an Indian Chess Grandmaster. He competed in the FIDE World Cup 2009.
➤ In 2003, he played for the bronze medal-winning India’s ‘C’ team’ in the Asian Team Chess Championship. He won the Indian Championship of Rapid Chess in the year 2014.
Arvind Kumar Sinha
➤ He was born in Nawada in the year 1954. He is a FIDE (Federation Internationals des Echeisor’ World Chess Federation) and a famous international rated chess player. He is also considered as one of the Bihar’s best chess players.
➤ In 2008, he became Bihar’s first and only FIDE Master. In 1986, he ached 7th position in the Common Wealth Chess Championship held in London and also remained Bihar Champion in the years of 1981, 1983 and 1983. He is a Chess Trainer and also a Honorary Secretary of All Bihar Chess Association (ABCA).
Rashmi Kumari
➤ She belongs to Bihar and is an international carrom champion. She won the women’s title in the 17th Inter-institution National Carrom Championship in Mumbai (2015).
➤ She has been a winner in many national level championships e.g.
Sub-Junior in 1997, Junior National at Faridabad in 2000, and 8 times in Senior National Level Championship (in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014).
➤ She has also won many international championships e.g.
4th World Cup Carrom Championship in 2014 ( in Maldives) and so on.
Nirupama Pandey
➤ She was born in Siwan in Bihar.
She is an Indian mountaineer, who is also the first person from Bihar who has scaled Mount Everest on 25th May, 2011. She has also scaled Mt Stok Kangri, and Mt Gulab Kangri in Leh, Mt Kamet and Mt Abhigamin in Garhwal and Mt Saser Kangri in Ladakh.
➤ She has been honoured by Ati Vishishth Khel Samman by the Government of Bihar.
Major Initiatives in Sports in Bihar (Bihar GK in English)
➤ Through Sports Facilitation Programme, the sportspersons who have represented the nation in international events or have won medals at the national level competitions are felicitated on the occasion of National Sports Day.
➤ Under the Mukhyamentri Khel Vikas Yojana, Eklavya Rajya Awasiya Khel Prashikshan Kendra Scheme is running in the state. Under this scheme, around 29 Eklavya Rajya Awasiya Khel Prashikshan Kendra are being operated in 16 districts of Bihar and 6 are proposed to be opened soon.
➤ The ‘Come and Play’ Scheme is being operationalised in the state, which provides sports field/sports equipments to the sportspersons in 9 different sporting disciplines.
➤ In the year of 2016-17, sanction was granted for organising training camps at Manoj Kamalia stadium, Patna city.
➤ Under ‘Khelo India’ Programme, competitions were organised in almost 10 sporting disciplines for women at the district and state levels.
➤ The State Government has proposed a plan to construct Gymnasium Cum Sports Complex. It would be equipped with multi-gym equipments and modern sports equipments of indoor games like Wrestling mat/Taekwondo mat, etc to provide physical fitness and encourage competitions at district level.
➤ The Directorate of Youth Welfare and Sports works for the overall development of youth in the state.
➤ To formulate State’s Sports Policy, a task force has been organised which consists of experienced sports administrators, sportspersons of the state alongwith officials of national level organisations and Arjun Award winners. This task force will provide guidance and recommendations for the development of sports in the state and on the basis of these recommendations the State’s Sports Policy will be formulated.
Awards and Honours (Bihar GK in English)
The Bihar Government provides awards and honours to distinguished persons, who belong to different fields on the occasion of Independence Day, Republic Day and other important occasions. These awardes are given cash prizes, citation and shawl for their contribution in the respective fields. Some of the important awards and honours are given below:
Literature Awards Given by Different Academies of Bihar
The state Government has established 11 different academies in order to provide awards and honours to artists and litterateurs of Bihar. These academies also propagate various art forms and associated languages. These academies are:
➤ Hindi Granth Academy l Sanskrit Academy
➤ Sangeet Natak Academy l Lalit Kala Academy
➤ Bangla Academy l Urdu Academy
➤ Maithili Academy l Magadhi Academy
➤ Tribal Language Academy l Bhojpuri Academy
➤ South Indian Language Academy
Awards given by Bihar Department of State Language
Chanakya Prize Political Science
Mandan Mishra Prize Religion and Philosophy
Vidyapati Prize Lok Sahitya Written in Hindi
Aryabhatt Prize Science
Upendra Maharathi Prize Art and Sculpture
Ayodhya Prasad Khatri Prize Hindi Language and Script
Kashi Prasad Jaiswal Prize History and Sanskrit
Raja Radhika Raman Prasad Singh Prize Novel and Story
Shiv Pujan Sahai Prize Literature, Rememberance and Travelogue
Rambriksha Benipuri Prize Drama and Stage
Kedarnath Mishra ‘Prabhat’ Prize Poem
| Nalin Vilochan Sharma Prize | Review | |
| Amarnath Jha Prize | Children Literature | |
| Dr Sachidanand Sinha Prize | Law Literature | |
| Gorakhnath Singh Prize | Economics | |
| Kumud Sharma Award | Female Artist | |
| Radha Mohan Award | Contemporary Art | |
| Sita Devi Award | Folk Art | |
| Phanishwar Nath Renu Prize | Regional story writing and Literature | |
| Bharat Ratna Awardees from Bihar | ||
| Awardee | Year | Field |
| Bidhan Chandra Roy | 1961 | Public Affairs |
| Bismillah Khan | 2001 | Music |
| Dr Rajendra Prasad | 1962 | Public Affairs |
| Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumously | l 1999 | Public Affairs |
| Padma Vibhushan Awardees from Bihar | ||
| Awardee | Year | Field |
| Fazl Ali | 1956 | Public Affairs |
Ustad Bismillah Khan
1980
Folk Art
Padma Bhushan Awardees from Bihar
| Awardee | Year | Field |
| Ashok Kumar | 1999 | Art |
| Balai Chand Mukhopadhyaya | 1975 | Literature and Education |
| BN Sircar | 1972 | Art |
| Dr Bishnupada Mukhopadhyaya | 1971 | Medicine |
| Dr Smt Sharda Sinha | 2018 | Art |
| Dr. Dukhan Ram | 1962 | Medicine |
| Hukumdev Narayan Yadav | 2019 | Public Affairs |
| Mekhala Jha | 1981 | Social Work |
| Prof Mohd Abdul Hai | 1964 | Medicine |
| Ramdhari Singh Dinkar | 1959 | Literature |
| Shiv Pujan Sahai | 1960 | Literature and Education |
| Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati | 2017 | Prominence of others (Yoga) |
| Syam Nandan Sahaya | 1957 | Literature and Education |
| Vindhyeshwari Prasad Verma | 1961 | Public Affairs |
List of Padmashri Awardees from Bihar (After 1 990)
| Year | Awardees | Field |
| 1999 | Acharya Ramamuriti | Social Work |
| 2017 | Baua Devi | Arts |
| 2005 | Bilat Paswan Vihangam | Literature and Education |
| 2014 | Biman Bihari Das | Arts |
| 1992 | Chittu Tudu | Arts |
| 2007 | Gajendra Narayan Singh | Arts |
| 2004 | Gopal Prasad Sinha | Medicine |
| 2010 | Hari Uppal | Arts |
| 2013 | Jagdish Prasad Singh | Literature and Education |
| 2012 | Jitendra Kumar Singh | Medicine |
| 2011 | Mahasundari Devi | Arts |
| 2018 | Manas Bihari Verma | Science of Engineering |
| 2019 | Manoj Bajpayee | Arts |
| 2014 | Mohan Mishra | Medicine |
| 2015 | Narendra Prasad | Medicine |
| 2011 | Pranab K Sen | Civil Service |
| 2010 | Rabindra Narain Singh | Medicine |
| 2016 | Ravindra Kumar Sinha | Others Wildlife Conservation |
| 2009 | Ravindra Nath Shrivastava | Literature and Education |
| 1991 | RS Narayan Singh Deo | Arts |
| 2003 | Shailendra Nath Shrivastava | Literature and Education |
| 1991 | Sharda Sinha | Arts |
| 2008 | Shyam Narayan Arya | Medicine |
| 2006 | Sudha Varghese | Social Work |
| 1991 | Syed Hassan | Literature and Education |
| 2003 | Vijay Prakash Singh | Medicine |
| Year | Awardees | Field | |
| 2019 | Bhagirathi Devi | Public Affairs | |
| 2019 | Godawari Dutta | Arts | |
| 2019 | Jyoti Kumar Sinha | Social Work | |
| 2019 | Rajkumari Devi | Agriculture | |
| Other National Awardees from Bihar | |||
| Awardees | Year | Award | |
| Ashok Kumar | 1988 | Dada Saheb Phalke Award | |
| Jai Prakash Narayan | 1965 | Raman Magasaysay Award | |
| Jyoti Prakash Nirala (Posthumously) | 2018 | Ashoka Chakra | |
| Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ | 1972 | Jnanpith Award | |
Other Important Awards Given by the State Government of Bihar
| Award | Field |
| All India Granth Puraskar | Indian culture, modern Indian literature, national integration, comparative study of Indian literature and other Indian languages |
| Bhikhari Thakur Prize | Books written in Bhojpuri language |
| Bihar Vishyak Granth Award | Land, natural regions, art language, literature and daily life of Bihar |
| Dr Father Kalim Bulke Prize | Poems written in Hindi on Bhakti literature, drama, novel, research, critical appreciation of original volume |
| Dr Grierson Prize | Books written in folk language of Bihar (Maithili and Magadhi) |
| Short Story Prize | Short stories |
| Vidhyakar Kavi Prize | Hindi books written in different aspects in state language |
