Commonwealth Games: Trivia and Events Record

Birmingham: A member of the team that played India's first-ever Test match was also a member of the Indian contingent that made its Commonwealth Games debut in 1934 at London!

Jahangir Khan, an all-rounder in the undivided Indian team that made its Test debut against England in June 1932 at Lord's and who later became a cricket selector and administrator in Pakistan after partition, was a javelin thrower and a sprint relay runner in the 1934 British Empire Games, as the Commonwealth Games were then known.

India did not send a team for the first Games in 1930 but sent a six-member squad for the next edition in London and Rashid Anwar, the team's lone wrestler, won the first-ever and sole medal that year – a bronze in the 74kg freestyle event.

The country failed to pick a medal in the next Games, at Sydney in 1938, and skipped the next edition at Auckland in 1950 (The Games were not held in 1942 and 1946). It drew a blank again at Auckland in 1954, the first time it was participating in the Games since Independence in 1947.

India first won gold at the Games in Cardiff, Wales, in 1958, when the great Milkha Singh (440-yard race) and freestyle wrestler Lila Ram (100kg), emerged as champions. Milkha beat Malcolm Spence to the gold in Cardiff but two years later, the South African beat the Indian in a close race and took the 400m bronze at the 1960 Tokyo Olympics.

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