Sports -Hyderabad

Cricket and hockey are the most popular sports in the city. Hyderabad Sultans won the inaugural Premier Hockey League championship in 2005. The city took pride in hosting National Games and Afro-Asian Games. Hyderabad 10k Run is a marathon event conducted every year.

The earliest stadium built in the city is the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium. Formerly known as Fateh Maidan, it was, till recently, the city's only stadium that could conduct International cricket matches. The first cricket match played here was on November 19, 1955. The stadium is currently being used to conduct ICL matches. The new Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium at Uppal has a capacity of approximately 55,000 spectators and is being enhanced to have world class facilities. It houses an ultra-modern gymnasium along with a swimming pool.

Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers franchise in the Indian Premier League was bought by Deccan Chronicle for USD 107 million. Deccan Chargers won the title for the year 2009. Notable players include Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, VVS Laxman, Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris, RP Singh, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Chaminda Vaas and Chamara Silva. For the 2009 season, Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Smith were included in the squad and Shahid Afridi was shown the door. The city also has an ICL team named Hyderabad Heroes.

The city houses the Swarnandhra Pradesh Sports Complex, the G.M.C. Balayogi Athletic Stadium at Gachibowli for hockey and football and a sophisticated Velodrome for cycling at Osmania University. The city has state-of-the-art venues for gymnastics, archery and sepak takraw, shooting at Saroornagar Indoor Arena and University of Hyderabad respectively. The Aquatics Complex Stadium at Gachibowli, with a capacity of 3000 spectators hosts swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized events. Kotla Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium with a capacity of 2500 spectators and wooden flooring with temperature control. SAAP Tennis Complex has a central court that holds 5000 spectators and has seven courts with synthetic surface. Water games like rowing, yachting, kayaking and canoeing are conducted at Hussain Sagar lake. The city also has five Go-Karting tracks and a Paint Ball Field. There are venues for table-tennis, basketball, equestrianism, boxing, weight-lifting with world class facilities.

The city is well known for Horse racing. The Hyderabad Race Club formerly known as the Nizam Race Club is located at Malakpet. The Hyderabad race club attracts jockeys from all over the country by conducting various derbys/events here. Deccan derby, a popular annual event is a regular feature here. The winter races also were conducted here recently. Badminton events take place at the Kotla Vijay Bhaskar Stadium and also at Gachibowli stadiums, and also played by youth and veterans in locality parks.

Some of the well known sports stars with global recognition and hailing from this city are Mohammed Azharuddin, VVS Laxman(Cricket), Pullela Gopichand (Badminton), Sania Mirza (Tennis), Saina Nehwal (Badminton), Gagan Narang (Shooting) among others.