Cricket is by far the most popular sport in Karnataka with International cricket matches attracting a sizeable number of spectators who are willing to pay more than the standard ticket price to get a chance to watch the match. The sports related infrastructure is mainly concentrated in Bangalore which also played host to the 4th National Games of India in the year 1997. Bangalore is also the location of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) which is the premier sports institute in the country. Karnataka is sometimes referred to as the cradle of Indian swimming because of high standards in swimming compared to other states.
Association Football
Amidst of cricket, which is the most popular sport of Karnataka, football finds its way in the state and attracts good amount of spectators during Indian Super League games of the club, Bengaluru FC. The game is also popular in the districts of Ballari, Mangaluru, Kodagu and Belgavi.
State team
Karnataka football team is a state team of Karnataka, which participates in Santosh Trophy. They have appeared in the Santosh Trophy finals 9 times, and have won the trophy 5 times. Prior to 1972, the team competed as 'Mysore'.
Vinoth Kumar, Xavier Vijay Kumar, N.S. Manju, Kuppuswami Sampath, Shankar Sampingiraj, Karma Tsewang, Sanjeeva Uchil are the notable footballers from karnataka.
Club football
Bengaluru FC is by far one of the most successful football Club in not only Karnataka but India, after having won six titles in short span. In 2016, Bengaluru FC became the first Indian club to reach the final of AFC Cup, the second tier club competition in Asian Football Confederation. The club so far has won 2 I-League titles, 1 Indian Super League title, 2 Federation Cup titles, 1 Super Cup and 1 Durand Cup title.
Before Bengaluru FC, institutional clubs such as HAL SC and ITI participated in Indian club football leagues. Other notable clubs from Bengaluru include FC Bengaluru United, Ozone FC & South United FC, which participate in I-League Second Division. Notable clubs from other districts include FC Mangalore and Kodagu FC which participated in Bangalore Super Division.
State league
Karnataka does not have a state league but rather a district league in the form of Bangalore Super Division which acts as the professional top tier league of the sate where twenty clubs compete. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C. or simply known as HAL SC is the most successful club. The Super Division is the top tier league in Karnataka, followed by Bangalore A Division as the second tier, Bangalore B Division as the third tier & finally Bangalore C Division as the fourth tier league.
Badminton
Prakash Padukone is the most notable badminton player to emerge from Karnataka with his win in the All England Badminton Championships in 1980 being his most famous victory. His other notable achievement is the bronze medal at the World Championships held at Copenhagen in 1983. He has also won the Danish Open, Swedish Open and the Commonwealth Games Gold Medal in the event held in 1978 at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has also been ranked World No. 1 in this sport. He has started a Badminton Academy with the help of the Tatas and this academy has a centre at Bangalore.
Cricket
Cricket is very popular sport in Karnataka with International cricket matches attracting a sizeable number of spectators who are willing to pay more than the standard ticket price to get a chance to watch the match. Chinnaswamy Stadium located in Bangalore is the only stadium in Karnataka that has hosted International cricket matches. This stadium also hosts the National Cricket Academy which was started to train youngsters who could represent India in the future. Former Indian captain Anil Kumble holds the record for the most Test wickets among Indian bowlers. Rahul Dravid, the former Indian captain represents Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy. Syed Kirmani and Roger Binny from Karnataka were members of the Indian team that won the Cricket World Cup in the year 1983. Other notable cricketers from Karnataka who have represented India include Gundappa Viswanath, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Javagal Srinath, Sunil Joshi, Venkatesh Prasad, Robin Uthappa, Vinay Kumar, and Dodda Ganesh. Karnataka have also won the Ranji Trophy six times. In a few International cricket matches held in the 1990s (One Day International and Test match), more than half of the Indian team were made of players from Karnataka. Deepak Chougule from Karnataka holds the junior world record for maximum runs scored in a single day when he scored 400 runs in his debut U-13 match against Goa.