Sports GK Mixed Quiz: Set 14

The correct answer is A, 18 metres by 9 metres. A volleyball court is a rectangle 18 metres long and 9 metres wide, divided into two square halves of 9 metres by 9 metres by the centre line, above which the net is fixed at 2.43 metres for men and 2.24 metres for women. Option B is wrong because 28 metres by 15 metres is a basketball court under international rules. Option C is wrong because 13.4 metres by 6.1 metres is a badminton court for doubles. Option D is wrong because 23.77 metres by 8.23 metres is a tennis court for singles, the doubles width being 10.97 metres. Papers set this question by listing four correct court sizes and asking for one game, so learn each size with its game rather than as a loose number.

The correct answer is B, Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The ground was laid out in 1864, which makes it the oldest cricket ground in the country by a wide margin; it is the home of the Cricket Association of Bengal, one of the largest cricket grounds in the world by seating and is often called the Lord's of the East because of its history and its crowds. Option A is wrong because the Wankhede Stadium was built in the 1970s after a dispute with the Cricket Club of India, which owned the older Brabourne Stadium nearby. Option C is wrong because the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bengaluru dates from the same decade and is the home of the Karnataka State Cricket Association. Option D is wrong because Green Park at Kanpur, though the oldest Test venue of Uttar Pradesh, came long after Eden Gardens. Fix the year 1864 with the name, since the question is sometimes asked the other way round.

The correct answer is C, grass court. Wimbledon is held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, it is the oldest of the four Grand Slam tournaments and it is the only one still played on grass, a surface on which the ball keeps low and comes quickly on to the racket, so it favours the serve and volley game. Option A is wrong because clay is the surface of the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris, where the ball grips and sits up and long rallies are the rule. Option B is wrong because hard courts are used at both the Australian Open at Melbourne Park and the US Open at Flushing Meadows in New York. Option D is wrong because carpet courts were used in some indoor tournaments in the past and at no Grand Slam today. Learn the four tournaments with their cities and surfaces as a single table, because that is how the question is set.

The correct answer is D, Karnataka. Karnataka won the 2017-18 Vijay Hazare Trophy, beating Saurashtra in the final played in Delhi. The tournament is India's premier domestic limited-overs competition for state teams, run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India since 2002-03, and it is named after Vijay Hazare, the batsman who led India to its first Test victory, against England at Madras in 1952. Karnataka's Mayank Agarwal was the story of that season, scoring 723 runs, the highest total by any batsman in a single edition of the trophy. Option A is wrong because Uttar Pradesh did not reach the 2017-18 final. Option B is wrong because Kerala was knocked out before the final that season. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra also failed to reach the final; Karnataka's opponent was Saurashtra. Exam tip: Vijay Hazare Trophy is the one-day tournament, the Ranji Trophy the first-class one and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy the Twenty20 one.

The correct answer is B, badminton. The Thomas Cup is the world team championship for men in badminton, and its counterpart for women is the Uber Cup, while the Sudirman Cup is the mixed team championship of the same game. Option A is wrong because the team championships of table tennis are the Swaythling Cup for men and the Corbillon Cup for women, a pair that is often set beside the badminton cups to confuse candidates. Option C is wrong because lawn tennis has the Davis Cup for men and the Billie Jean King Cup for women. Option D is wrong because squash has its own world team championship and no trophy of this name. The easiest way to hold the set is to remember three sports and two cups each, one for men and one for women.

The correct answer is A, Purma Banerjee. India marched behind its own flag at the Olympics for the first time at Antwerp in 1920, and the athlete Purma Banerjee carried it at the opening ceremony. That was India's first real team at the Games: six members, four athletes and two wrestlers, sent with the help of the industrialist Dorabji Tata, whose support also led to the founding of the Indian Olympic Association in 1927. Earlier, at Paris in 1900, India had been represented by Norman Pritchard competing alone. B is wrong because Dhyan Chand was the hockey great whose teams took gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936, but he was not the first flag bearer. C is wrong because Lal Shah Bokhari carried the flag later, at Los Angeles in 1932. D is wrong because the hockey player Zafar Iqbal was flag bearer at Los Angeles in 1984. Exam tip: 1920 Antwerp — India's first Olympic team, flag carried by Purma Banerjee.

The correct answer is A, Kolkata. The ground's formal name is Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, it stands in the Salt Lake area of Kolkata, and it is the largest football stadium in the country and among the largest in the world; the city's clubs and the national team both play there, and it hosted the final of an age-group FIFA World Cup. Option B is wrong because the Guwahati venue is the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, used for athletics and football. Option C is wrong because the Kochi ground is the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the home of the Kerala football crowd, and it shares its name with the larger stadium in Delhi. Option D is wrong because Margao in Goa has the Fatorda or Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, another well-known football ground. Kolkata's link with football is worth remembering, since its old clubs are among the oldest in Asia.

The correct answer is C, Mahesh Bhupathi. He won the mixed doubles title at the 1997 French Open partnering Rika Hiraki of Japan, and that was the first Grand Slam title of any kind won by an Indian. Two years later, with Leander Paes, he won the men's doubles at both the French Open and Wimbledon in 1999.

Option A, Leander Paes, went on to win many more Major titles than Bhupathi in men's and mixed doubles and is the better known name, which is exactly why the question is set; his first Major came after Bhupathi's. Option B, Vijay Amritraj, reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open in the 1970s and was a Davis Cup mainstay, but never won a Major. Option D, Ramanathan Krishnan, reached the Wimbledon singles semi-final in 1960 and 1961, the best singles run by an Indian at a Major, but again without a title. No Indian has yet won a Grand Slam singles title.

The correct answer is B, the Ranji Trophy champions against the Rest of India. The Irani Cup was begun to mark twenty five seasons of the Ranji Trophy and is a single first class match in which the reigning national champions meet a side drawn from the best players of the other teams, which makes it a selection trial as much as a contest. Option A is wrong because the tournament played on zonal lines is the Duleep Trophy, named after Duleepsinhji. Option C is wrong because India A and India B sides meet in other domestic and touring fixtures, not in this cup. Option D is wrong because the one day tournament is the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the twenty over one is the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and neither feeds into the Irani Cup.

The correct answer is C, ten. The word decathlon is built from the Greek deca, meaning ten, and athlon, meaning contest. It is a men's combined event held over two days, and its ten disciplines take in sprints, hurdles, the middle-distance 1500 metres, jumps and throws. Points are awarded by a fixed table and the highest total wins.

Option A, seven, is the number of events in the heptathlon, the women's combined event, and is the commonest wrong answer because the two are always taught together. Option B, eight, matches no combined event in athletics. Option D, twelve, is likewise not a recognised total. A third combined event worth noting is the pentathlon, with five events, which survives in the modern pentathlon and in indoor competition. Count the Greek prefix and the answer follows at once.

The correct answer is B, Arun Jaitley Stadium. The ground of the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association was renamed in 2019 in memory of the former union minister who had led that association for many years; the playing area alone was renamed, and the older name Feroz Shah Kotla still attaches to the historic complex beside it. Option A is wrong because the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, named after the hockey player called the Wizard, is the capital's best-known hockey ground. Option C is wrong because the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is the large multi-sport venue that hosted the 1982 Asian Games and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Option D is wrong because the Indira Gandhi Arena is an indoor stadium used for gymnastics, wrestling and cycling events. Renamings are a favourite of paper setters, so carry the pairs: Kotla and Arun Jaitley, Motera and Narendra Modi.

The correct answer is B, 1924. FIDE, the Federation Internationale des Echecs, was founded in Paris in 1924, and its motto is Gens una sumus, a Latin phrase meaning we are one people. Because it was founded on 20 July, that date is observed every year as International Chess Day. FIDE awards the lifetime titles of Candidate Master, FIDE Master, International Master and Grandmaster, and it runs the world championship cycle and the Chess Olympiad. Option A is wrong because 1912 belongs to no landmark in chess administration. Option C is wrong because 1936 is a decade after the founding. Option D is wrong because 1951 is the year the All India Chess Federation, the national body, was formed, which is a different fact that examiners deliberately place among the options.

The correct answer is C, Lausanne in Switzerland. The International Olympic Committee, founded in 1894 on the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, moved its seat to Lausanne during the First World War and has worked from that city ever since, which is why Lausanne is called the Olympic capital. Option A is wrong because Athens hosted the first modern Games in 1896 and holds great symbolic weight, but never the headquarters. Option B is wrong because Paris is the city where the committee was founded at a congress held in the Sorbonne, and candidates often mistake the place of founding for the place of work. Option D is wrong because Rome hosted the Games of 1960 and has no such office. Remember Lausanne for the Olympic movement and Zurich for FIFA.

The correct answer is B, the five inhabited continents. Pierre de Coubertin designed the symbol in 1913, and the rings are interlaced to show the meeting of athletes from every part of the world at the Games. The flag itself was first flown at the Antwerp Games of 1920.

Option A, the five oceans, is the commonest wrong answer and is offered in almost every version of this question. Option C, five founding nations, is wrong because far more than five countries took part from the beginning and the rings were never tied to a list of members. Option D, five original sports, is also wrong, since the first modern Games included several sports and the rings carry no sporting meaning. A related fact worth holding: the colours blue, yellow, black, green and red, together with the white background, were chosen because every national flag of that time carried at least one of them, so no colour officially belongs to a named continent.

The correct answer is A, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The circuit was built there and held the Formula One Indian Grand Prix in 2011, 2012 and 2013, the only rounds of the world championship ever staged in India; it continues to be used for motorcycle racing and other motor sport events. Option B is wrong because the Madras Motor Race Track at Sriperumbudur near Chennai is an older and much shorter circuit that has never held a Formula One race. Option C is wrong because the Kari Motor Speedway at Coimbatore is a small track used for club racing and karting. Option D is wrong because Gurugram has no international racing circuit. Two further facts travel with this one: Formula One races are run over a set number of laps rather than a fixed time, and the most famous street circuit of the calendar is at Monaco.

The correct answer is B, 1962. India won the Asian Games football gold medal twice, first at the inaugural Games in New Delhi in 1951 and again at Jakarta in 1962, where the team beat South Korea in the final. Those two titles, together with the fourth place at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, mark the golden age of Indian football under the coach Syed Abdul Rahim.

Option A, 1958, was the year of the Tokyo Asian Games, at which India did not take the football gold. Option C, 1966, refers to the Bangkok Asian Games and is also the year England won the World Cup, which makes it a tempting but wrong choice. Option D, 1970, was the year of the Bangkok Asian Games at which India won the bronze medal in football, a good result but not the gold.

The correct answer is B, football. The Santosh Trophy is the national football championship of India, played between teams representing the states and certain institutions, and it has been held since 1941. For decades it was the most important competition in Indian football and the main window through which players reached the national team. Option A is wrong because the national hockey championship is played for the Rangaswamy Cup, and the older hockey tournaments of the country are the Beighton Cup and the Agha Khan Cup. Option C is wrong because volleyball has its own federation cup and no trophy of this name. Option D is wrong because kabaddi is organised through its national championships and league. Tie Santosh with football and Rangaswamy with hockey and the pair is settled.

The correct answer is B, FC Barcelona. Camp Nou stands in the city of Barcelona in Spain and is the home of that club and one of the largest football stadiums in Europe. Option A is wrong because Real Madrid play at the Santiago Bernabeu, also in Spain, and the meeting of these two clubs is the match known as El Clasico, which is why the pair is offered together in the options. Option C is wrong because Manchester United play at Old Trafford, a name that also belongs to a famous cricket ground in the same city, so a careless candidate can be caught twice. Option D is wrong because Bayern Munich play at the Allianz Arena in Germany. Two more football grounds are asked regularly: Wembley in London, the home of the English national team, and the Maracana at Rio de Janeiro, where the World Cup finals of 1950 and 2014 were played.

The correct answer is A, table tennis. The Swaythling Cup is the men's team championship of the world table tennis championships and the Corbillon Cup is the women's team championship of the same event, and the two names are almost always set together in question papers. Option B is wrong because the team cups of badminton are the Thomas Cup for men and the Uber Cup for women. Option C is wrong because basketball has no trophies of these names and its national competition in India is the federation cup. Option D is wrong because hockey in India is played for the Beighton Cup, the Agha Khan Cup and the Rangaswamy Cup among others. Learn the two pairs of cups, Thomas and Uber for badminton and Swaythling and Corbillon for table tennis, as a single block.

The correct answer is C, Bhubaneswar. The Kalinga Stadium is the sports complex of the capital of Odisha and it staged the men's Hockey World Cup of 2018; the state has since become the main home of Indian hockey, and the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium built at Rourkela in the same state hosted matches of the next edition in 2023. Option A is wrong because Ranchi in Jharkhand has the JSCA International Stadium for cricket and an astroturf hockey ground, but it did not hold the World Cup. Option B is wrong because Raipur in Chhattisgarh is known for the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh cricket stadium. Option D is wrong because Cuttack, also in Odisha, has the Barabati Stadium, a cricket ground, which makes it the most tempting distractor in the set. Remember the state rather than only the city, because the question is often framed as which state hosted the event.