New Delhi: Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar’s teary-eyed farewell to the game left a nation overwhelmed, while chess wizard Viswanathan Anand broke many a heart by surrendering the world title on home turf even as the brazen chicanery of administrators embarrassed the country in more ways than one in a roller-coaster year for Indian sports.
For lovers of sports, year 2013 was nothing short of an emotional roller-coaster with a liberal dose of frustration thrown in courtesy India’s continued suspension from the Olympic fold.
Adding to the embarrassment was the IPL spot-fixing scandal which led to the arrest of cricketers, including former Test pacer S Sreesanth.
The shameful episode’s already disastrous impact on the game was worsened by the way it was handled by its administrators, who tried to brush things under the carpet with an internal inquiry before the Supreme Court of India intervened.
In fact, Indian sports had very few success stories to talk of this year. One among them was rising shuttler PV Sindhu.
The 18-year-old from Hyderabad took the spotlight off Saina Nehwal by becoming the first woman shuttler to clinch a medal at the World Championships — a bronze. In contrast, Saina battled poor form and injury issues through the year to end up without a title.
Not to forget the junior women’s hockey team, which also clinched a bronze in the World Cup. Led by Sushila Chanu, the girls won their first-ever World Cup medal by beating England in the third-place playoff via penalty shoot-out.
In wrestling, youngsters Amit Kumar, Bajrang and Sandeep Yadav scripted India’s best ever show in the World Championship in the absence of Olympic stars in a year during which the ancient sport successfully fought off its Olympic exclusion.
Off the field, one of the biggest achievements for Indian sports was bagging the hosting rights of the 2017 Under 17 football World Cup after months of speculation and one rejection by the world governing body FIFA.
It was a rare instance of administrators getting it right given the mess that they mostly found themselves in through the year.
Elsewhere, the Indian archers were also quite on the mark as the women’s trio stunned reigning Olympic champion Korean team by a four-point margin in the World Cup Stage 4 final in Poland in a historic feat.
But in boxing, the continuing administrative logjam worsened into a full-fledged factional tug-of-war while Indian boxing’s poster boy, Vijender Singh, found himself at the center of a devastating drug scandal in what was a thoroughly tumultuous year for the country’s pugilists.
Suspended internationally last year, the Indian Boxing Federation remained a pariah this year too, preventing the country’s boxers from competing under the national flag.
To top it all, Vijender, the man who attained nationwide stardom after bringing home India’s maiden Olympic and World Championship medals, was implicated in a drug scandal, tarnishing his reputation even though no evidence was found against him after the initial brouhaha.
If there was one defining moment in Indian sports this year, it was Tendulkar walking into the sunset after 24 years in international cricket.
It indeed was a ‘Farewell to Remember’ when Tendulkar played his 200th and final Test match at his homeground Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. His last innings in Test cricket bore testimony to legendary status — an innings that was high on quality and aesthetic value.
200 Test matches, 100 international centuries, more than 50,000 runs across all formats at the senior level are not just numbers or milestones for the cricket crazy Indians. His farewell speech at the Wankhede on November 16 will forever be etched in the memory of his fans as there was hardly anyone who didn’t wipe a tear on that emotional afternoon.
Tendulkar left a legacy but with his departure a new chapter unfolded in Indian cricket as the transition phase, which had been a buzz word since the retirement of Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly, ended.
The ‘Gen-Next’ under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s able stewardship took over quite successfully with Virat Kohli easily being the best of the lot in terms of talent transformed into performance. (PTI)
