Vision Academy EducareVision Academy Educare
Question 174 of 325 · Sports
Questionmedium
This question was previously asked in

SSC

Who became independent India's first world champion in any sport?

Answer View answer ▾

Answer: Option B — Wilson Jones

Detailed Solution

Wilson Jones won the World Amateur Billiards Championship in 1958 in Calcutta (Kolkata), becoming the first Indian to win a world title in any sport after India's independence. He won the world title again in 1964 in New Zealand.

More about Wilson Jones:

  • He was born on 2 May 1922 in Pune, Maharashtra.
  • He won the national billiards championship many times and was one of the pioneers of cue sports in India.
  • He received the Arjuna Award in 1962 and the Padma Shri in 1965.
  • He died in 2003 in Mumbai.

Billiards in India:

Cue sports were introduced in India by British army officers. The game of snooker was invented in India, at Jabalpur, in 1875.

India has produced many world champions in billiards and snooker:

Michael Ferreira: won the World Amateur Billiards Championship three times (1977, 1981 and 1983). He famously declined the Padma Shri in 1981.

Geet Sethi: won the World Professional Billiards Championship several times (first in 1992) and was the first person to score a perfect 147 break in amateur snooker in competition (1992). He received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (1992-93).

Pankaj Advani: has won more than 25 world titles in billiards and snooker, the most by any Indian in any sport. He received the Khel Ratna (2006) and the Padma Bhushan (2018).

Other Indian world champion "firsts":

  • Prakash Padukone won the All England badminton title in 1980 and the World Cup, but not the World Championship.
  • V. Sindhu became India's first badminton world champion in 2019.
  • Viswanathan Anand became India's first chess world champion (FIDE) in 2000.

Why not the other options?

  • ✗Michael Ferreira won his first world billiards title in 1977, after Wilson Jones.
  • ✗Prakash Padukone was a badminton champion but won the All England, not a World Championship.
  • ✗Geet Sethi won world titles from 1985 (amateur) and 1992 (professional).

Quick tip

Remember: India's first world champion after independence = Wilson Jones (World Amateur Billiards, 1958, and again 1964); Michael Ferreira, Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani = later cue sports champions.

💬 Discussions on this question

Ask a doubt ›

Still stuck on this question? Ask our faculty and fellow students — answers appear here.

Ask a doubt

More Sports Questions

View all ›
  1. Q1.The Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports (NIS) is situated at:
  2. Q2.'Penalty corner' is a term associated with which sport?
  3. Q3.The Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) was started in:
  4. Q4.In the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup final, India defeated:
  5. Q5.The Barabati Stadium is located in which state?

More General Knowledge Questions

  1. Q1.The techniques of Rasa and Bhava used in Indian classical dance trace their origin to which ancient text?Indian Dance Forms
  2. Q2.Lavani, Powada, Koli, Waghya Murali and Dhangari Gaja are folk dances of which state?Indian Dance Forms
  3. Q3.The one-act play associated with the Sattriya tradition of Assam is called:Indian Dance Forms
  4. Q4.Which dance form of Goa is known as the 'Warrior Dance'?Indian Dance Forms
  5. Q5.Manipuri dance is based on the Rasleela themes of:Indian Dance Forms

Sports — Preparation

This question tests your understanding of Sports, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.

This topic covers sports GK: major tournaments and their venues, trophies and cups associated with each sport, sports terms, the number of players in a team, sports awards in India, Olympic and Asian Games facts, and famous sportspersons and their achievements. Common questions ask which sport a trophy belongs to (such as the Durand Cup for football or the Ranji Trophy for cricket), which term is used in which sport, and where a tournament was held. Records and results change after every season, so pair static facts such as team sizes and terms with recent results from current affairs. Practise the sports questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.

‹ All Sports questionsBrowse all topics ›