# 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, 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. The rule was upheld in 2010 by the Delhi High Court in the Karm Kumar vs Union Of India and Ors.
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.

## 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, 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. 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.

### Color key

* Acquired Indian nationality

### Team sports
#### Cricket

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

#### Football

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

#### Field hockey

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years | Notable events | Ref |
| Trevor Fernandes | Tanzania | 1971–1973 | | |

#### Rugby union

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years |
| Manmandir Singh Samra | United Kingdom | 2004–2006 |
| Simon Patel Knowles | United Kingdom | 2004–2006 |
| Amarveer Singh Ladhar | United Kingdom | 2004–2006 |
| Ajay Sabharwal | United Kingdom | 2004–2006 |

### Individual sports
#### Boxing

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

#### Tennis

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years | Notable events |
| Prakash Amritraj | United States | 2002–2013 | Grand Slams, Davis Cup |
| Stephen Amritraj | United States | 2003–2008 | |
| Shikha Uberoi | United States | 2005–2011 | Asian Games, Fed Cup |
| Sunitha Rao | United States | 2007–2009 | Summer Olympics, Fed Cup |
| Kanika Vaidya | Singapore United States | 2008–2018 | |
| Krisha Mahendran | United States | 2022– | |
| Aishi Bisht | United States | 2022– | |
| Vihaan Reddy | United States | 2023–2024 | |

#### Figure skating

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years | Notable events |
| Ami Parekh | United States | 2006–2014 | Worlds, Four Continents |
| Amar Mehta | United States | 2007 | World Juniors |
| Yoniko Eva Washington | United States | 2008–2010 | Worlds |
| Mayuri Bhandari | United States | 2008 | |
| Anavi Tekriwal | United States | 2013 | |
| Shreya Saha Dalal | United States | 2015 | |
| Arunima Verabelli | United States | 2017 | |
| Tara Prasad | United States | 2020– | Four Continents |

#### Squash

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years | Notable events | Ref |
| Karm Kumar | United Kingdom | 2006 | Asian Junior Championships | |

#### Swimming

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

#### Shooting

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years | Notable events | Ref |
| Sohrab Singh Gill | United States | 2007 | Asian Championships | |

#### Chess

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years |
| Akshat Chandra | United States | 2009–2012 |
| Tarun Kanyamarala | Ireland | 2014–2017 |
| Trisha Kanyamarala | Ireland | 2014–2017 |
| Amaya Agarwal | England | 2022–2023 |
| Anay Agarwal | England | 2022–2023 |
| Ashwath Kaushik | Singapore | 2022 |

#### Badminton

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years | Notable events | Ref |
| Srivedya Gurazada | United States | 2019–2022 | | |

#### Skiing

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years | Notable events | Ref |
| Leona Dogra | Switzerland | 2019 | | |

### Other sports
#### Mixed martial arts (Pro MMA)

| Sportsperson | Nationality | Years | Notable events | Ref |
| Arjan Bhullar | Canada | 2017– | UFC, ONE FC | |
| Gurdarshan Mangat | Canada | 2019– | ONE FC | |