Sports besides Cricket are popular in Hyderabad. In the inaugural Premiere Hockey League in 2005, Hyderabad Sultans won the championships. Hyderabad recently got a new cricket stadium, Visakha International Cricket Stadium, which was later renamed to Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.

Sporting Icons of Hyderabad

• Syed Mohammad Hadi - Olympic tennis player.

• J. Bharadwaja - Olympic Snake n Ladder player.

• V. V. S. Laxman - Indian Cricket player.

• Mohammad Azharuddin - Former Indian Cricket team captain

• Gulam Ahmed - Former Indian Cricket team captain

• Abid Ali - Former Indian Cricket player

• Venkatapathy Raju - Former Indian Cricket player and Present Indian Cricket Team Selector

• Pullela Gopichand - Badminton player (Winner of The All England Badminton Championship - 2001)

• Sania Mirza - Tennis player who is the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title.

• Saina Nehwal - Badminton player

• Hari Krishna Pendyala - Chess champion(became the Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 91 days in August 2001)

• Koneru Humpy - Woman Chess prodigy

• Gagan Narang - World class Shooter

• Karanam Malleswari - Olympics Weight lifter

The National Games
The selection of the city as a host of the National Games in 2002 resulted in a major investment to build some of the best world-class stadiums in the country. Later these stadiums played host to the Afro-Asian Games held 2003. Today the list of stadiums of international standard found in Hyderabad is large and diverse.

Stadium
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 was played here was on November 19, 1955. With the construction of the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium at Uppal, it is unlikely that any more cricket matches will be held here.

The city also houses the Swarnandhra Pradesh Sports Complex and the G.M.C. Balayogi Athletic Stadium.