Sport: The year that was
As one more year rolls over, it is now the best time to look behind and observe how the Indian sportspersons performed in 2010, which was one of the crucial years with several mega events like Commonwealth Games and Asiad. Correspondent Supriyo Hazra highlights the year in the sporting arena
Willow and Leather
Cricket despite all its attendant criticism and match-fixing controversies, is still a religion in India. So we begin our flashback with the game. The world of Cricket witnessed several ups and down. I was specially a good year for Indian cricket with India performing well at nearly all the tournaments. However, the mighty Australians and their long reign received a severe blow as India snatched the number 1 Test ranking spot from them. Beside, they also lost the T-20 World Cup final to England. Surely, their long their prolonged reign in International cricket received a serious setback in 2010.
Highlights of the mega cricket events:
World Cup T-20 championship:
The World T-20 championship was staged in West Indies this year. England won the cup by defeating Australia by 7 wickets in the final.
India continued their poor show in the Cup, as Dhoni and his men failed to reach the semifinals of the event. India lost all their super 8 phase matches despite starting the tournament in flying colours by defeating South Africa and Afghanistan in the league phase.
India had won the trophy in the first edition of the World T-20 championship that was staged in
South Africa in 2007.
Asia Cup:
Despite a miserable campaign in World T-20 in West Indies, the ‘Men in Blue’ lifted the Asian Games trophy this year by defeating defending champions Sri Lanka in the finals by 81 runs. Indian team brought back the cup to India after a long gap of 15 years.
Australia-India Test series: The India- Australia Test series is a much talked about series these days. And this time it was India who defeated Australia in both the Test matches to lift the Border-Gavaskar trophy. With this victory India maintained their number one spot in the ICC International Test ranking, which was dominated by Aussies for a long period of time in the past. India also clinched the Test series against New Zealand who toured India later this year.
A future captain?
Gautam Gambhir: India discovered a new captain this year, when Gautam Gambhir led the team in the five match One day International series, in the absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Gambhir and his young Indian team white-washed the series by 5-0 margin.
Master Blaster ruled the field
‘Master blaster’ Sachin Tendulkar had a wonderful 2010 in the cricketing field as he continued to add more and more records in his crown. Sachin Tendulkar became the first cricketer to score 50 Test century, this year. He scored his 50th Test century against South Africa in December. Sachin touched another milestone, crossing 14,000 runs in Test match, during the Test series against Australia this year.
Sachin created a significant record in One Day International cricket as he scored the first double century in the limited over format of the game. Sachin had scored 200 against South Africa earlier this year, when the South Africa had toured India.
Off the Fields:
Sachin not only shone and created records on the field, he also added more feathers to his crowns off the field this year.
He was conferred the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force (IAF), in 2010.
Adding to his lengthy list of accomplishments, Sachin Tendulkar was named a Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), earlier this year.
On Nov 11, with exactly 100 days to go, the ICC (International Cricket Council) announced the appointment of Indian batting legend, Sachin Tendulkar, the official event ambassador for cricket’s flagship event, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.
India Premiere League:
The cash rich Indian Premiere Tournament came back to India in 2010 after being hosted in South Africa last year. The tournament was equally colourful and exciting, like its previous editions, with Chennai Super King, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni winning the trophy by defeating Mumbai Indians by 22 runs in the final.
Googly for KKR :
Kolkata Knight Riders: Despite a good start to the league with two back to back victories, Sourav Ganguly and his men failed to reach the Semi Finals of the event this year as well. In fact, the performance of the team was equally poor like the previous two editions, disappointing its fans considerably.
Cricket and controversies:
2010 can be considered to be one of the eventful years in the world of Cricket both for the good reasons as well as the bad ones as the ghost of corruption and controversy hounded the ‘Gentleman’s game’ significantly.
Pakistan cricket:
In the International arena the spot fixing controversy rattled the cricket lovers once again. This time it was Pakistan and Pakistani players who were most affected by it.
Levelling serious charges of corruption against members of the Pakistani cricket team and creating a national embarrassment and crisis for their country, UK tabloid News of the World showed video footage of a middleman accepting thousands of pounds in return of guaranteeing three no-balls at precise times during the Lord’s Test match between Pakistan and England.
Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were the three players whose named got involved with this shameful scandal.
Caught in the spot fixing controversy, the anti-corruption body of the game's governing
body ICC suspended the three players provisionally in early September.
Later on another Pakistan player, Zulqarnain Haider, triggered a new controversy, as he announced his retirement from International cricket on the grounds of receiving life threats after his match-winning performance in 4th One Day International against South Africa.
Haidar claimed that all these factors forced him to leave the national cricket team in Dubai and run for his life to UK and seek asylum there.
India’s IPL controversies:
IPL chairman Lalit Modi was suspended from his position by BCCI after the completion of the third edition of the league on the ground of financial irregularities, early this year. Chirayu Amin was appointed the new interim chairman of Indian Premiere League.
The two significant IPL franchisees Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab faced severe problems this year as, cracking the whip; the Governing Council of the IPL on Oct 10 terminated their contracts. Some court ruling went in favour of the teams but the uncertainty persists.
Hockey:
Mega Events: The Hockey World Cup was staged in New Delhi, early this year. The mighty Australians clinched the trophy by defeating Germany in the final.
Highs:
India won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games this year.
India continued their good performance at the Asian Games and clinched the bronze medal at Guangzhou. They defeated South Korea in the third place playoff.
The bronze ended India's eight-year-long wait for an Asian Games medal. The last time the men's hockey team made a podium finish was a (silver) last in the 2002 Busan Games.
Sultan Azlam Shah Cup: Defending champion India continued its good form this year as well as they were declared joint winners along with South Korea in a rain affected final match.
Lows:
Hockey World Cup: India finished 8th in the Hockey World Cup this year.
CWG:Despite winning a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, India was thrashed by gold medalist Australians by a heavy margin of 8-0 goals.
Tennis:
Australian Open:
Men’s Single event: Roger Federer clinched the first trophy of the year by defeating A. Murray.
Women’s Single: Serena Wiliams won the women’s single event by defeating J. Henin.
French Open: Rafael Nadal won the Freanch Open Men’s single title this year by defeating R. Soderling.
Women’s Single: Francesca Schiavone won the Women’s Single event at the Roland-Garros.
Wimbledon:
Men’s Single: Rafael Nadal added one more feather to his crown as he won the title by defeating Novak Djokovic in the final.
Women’s single: Kim Clijsters won the title by defeating Vera Zvonareva.
Men’s Single: Rafael Nadal clinched the Wimbledon title by defeating Tomas Berdych in the final.
Women’s Single: Serena Williams won the title by defeating Vera Zvonareva.
Indians on the Tennis court:
Australian Open: Indian Tennis icon Leander Paes and his mixed doubles partner C. Black won the mixed doubles title.
French Open: Lukas Doluhy and Leander Paes became the runners up at the Men’s doubles event.
Wimbledon: Leander Paes-Cara Black won the Mixed doubles title.
U.S. Open: Indo-Pak pair pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi reached the final of the Men’s Double event before crashing out in the final to the Bryan brothers.
Commonwealth Games: Creating history, Somdev Devvarman clinched a gold for India in the Commonwealth Games as he became the first Indian to achieve the feat, beating Australia's Greg Jones 6-4, 6-2 in the men's singles final.
Asian Games: India's tennis pair Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh won the gold medal for the country in the men's doubles event at the Asian Games this year. He also had won the Singles Gold medal at the Asian Games, stunning top-seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
Truly, the year belonged to Somdev as he ensured that India will have some one to carry forward the national legacy in tennis in the days to come.
CWG: Sania Mirza won the silver medal at the CWG women’s Single final.
Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan settled for the silver at Mixed Doubles event at the Asian Games.
Badminton:
India had a wonderful year in Badminton, and it is the Hyderabadi badminton sensation Saina Nehwal who made it possible, as she kept on winning one tournament after the other.
This year she performed really well to reach the number 2 ranking and of course the entire nation will hope that she continues her form and becomes the number 1 player in 2011. Highlights of her achievements this year:
Hits:
She won the Indonesian Open at the beginning of the year.
Saina also won the Singapore Open super Series in 2010.
Indian Open Grand Prix, 2010, was also won by the stylish Hyderabadi girl this year.
She won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in the women’s single event.
Saina received the prestigious Khel Ratna Award in 2010 for her wonderful perfomance in the game for India.
Lows:
Saina Nehwal suffered a straight defeat to China's Shixian Wang in the women's singles quarterfinals at the World Badminton Championship.
She also crashed out of the Asian Games after suffering in the quarter final match of the women’s single event in China.
Commonwealth Games:
It was a glorious moment in India as Commonwealth Games was staged in New Delhi this year in October. However, much of the enthusiasm and pride was undermined by corruption. The darker phase of controversies hounded the games before its beginning casting a big doubt over its occurrence. The under prepared Games village and the scandals associated with the preparation of the Games had completely shattered the image of India in the global platform. Regularly, media all over the world highlighted the gloomy picture of the ham-handed preparations. The Games’ chief architect in India Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Organising Committee, was singled out for most of the mismanagement and corruption charges. However, the Games finally took place and eventually turned out to be the most successful event as far as the Indian athletes are concerned.
India stood second in the medals’ tally with 38 Gold medals, 27 Silver medals, 36 Bronze medals and with a total medal haul of 101.
Australia topped the chart with 177 medals, which include, 74 Gold medals, 55 Silver medals and 48 Bronze medals.
Highlights of Indian performance:
Weightlifter Soniya Chanu bagged the first Commonwealth Games (CWG) medal for India by winning the silver in the women’s 48kg category, while her compatriot Sandhya Rani won the bronze.
Sukhen Dey of West Bengal lifted a total of 252 kg (snatch 112 kg and clean and jerk 112 kg) to emerge second and win a silver medal for India at the 56 kg category.
Indian weightlifter Renu Bala won gold in 58kg women’s weightlifting event
Shooting gave India their first Gold: India’s first gold in the Commonwealth Games came from Olympic champions Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang, who won the men's 10 metre air rifle pairs event, by bettering their own Games record.
The 25 m women pistol saw India winning the gold again through Rahi and Anisa, with a score of 1156.
Deepak Sharma and Omkar Singh won silver medal in 50 m pistol.
Omkar Singh also won India its 20th gold by winning the final of Men's Singles 10m Air Pistol.
Tejaswini Sawant and Lajja Kumari Gauswami, clinched silver medal in the women 50m rifle event.
Shooter Gagan Narang bagged a Gold medal in the 10 M Air Rifle individual event
Gagan Narang continued his gold rush throughout the CWG as he and Imran Hasan won India’s 16th gold medal in the pairs 50 m Rifle 3 positions.
The triple gold winner won the fourth gold for himself as Gagan Narang finished first in the 50 mts Rifle 3 Positions singles event.
Shooter Vijay Kumar brought India the 17th medal in the Men's Rapid Fire individual event.
Indian shooters, Vijay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh bagged the yellow metal in the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol (pairs) event as they beat the Malaysian challenge by 18 points.
Shooters Vijay Kumar and Harpreet Singh bagged gold medal in 25m Centre fire Pistol Pairs.
Samresh Jung and Chandrashekhar Kumar Choudhary bagged silver medal in the Pairs 25m Standard Pistol Men event.
Indian shooter Heena Sidhu continued her good form as she bagged a silver at the women’s 10m air pistol event.
Archery: India got its 15th gold in the Commonwealth Games with the women archers team comprising of Dola Banerjee, Dipika Kumri and Bombayala Devi clinching the yellow metal by beating their English rivals.
Rahul Banerjee claimed the individual men recurve Singles title to give India its third gold from Archery piping Lyon Jason of Canada.
Jayanta Talukdar, who was favourite to win the gold in this event, had to be satisfied winning the bronze in the play off for the third place defeating Mathew Grey of Australia.
Athletics: Harminder Singh won a surprise bronze in Men's 20 km Walk event.
Record in the field: For the first time after Milkha Singh won gold in track and field event of Commonwealth Games (CWG) in 1958, Krishna Pooniya bagged gold for India as she took the top spot in women’s discus clearing a distance of 61.51 metres. Surely a new icon was born. It was also a historic moment for Indian athletics as besides Pooniya,
Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil also clinched the silver and bronze in the women's discus throw. Harwant got the silver with 60.16m. The bronze went to Seema with a throw of 58.46m.
The women's 4X400m relay quartet of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji and Mandeep Kaur set the track ablaze by winning the race in 3:27.77, ahead of Nigeria (3:28.72) and England (3:29.51).
Indian men and women's 4x100m relay teams won bronze in the finals.
Table Tennis: Indian women's table-tennis team had won a silver medal after Singapore defeated them in the final.
Indian doubles pair of Achanta Sarath Kamal and Subhajit Saha won gold in the men's doubles table tennis defeating Gao and Yang of Singapore 3-2 after a hard-fought battle.
Experienced Indian pair, Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das, got bronze medal in women's double table tennis in the CWG
Wrestling: Yogeshwar Dutt won gold in 60 Kg Freestyle Wrestling at the Commonealth Games (CWG).
Wrestling: Star Indian Wrestler and current World Champion Sushil Kumar picked up India's 28th gold medal in the Commonwealth Games after he won the final in the 66 kg freestyle wrestling.
Boxing: CWG witnesses a setback as Indian Boxing star Vijender Kumar lost the semi final match. It was an absolute heart breaker for his fans as it was considered that he will surely clinch the gold medal in the 75 kg category.
Indian athlete Manoj Kumar won gold in boxing in the light welterweight (64 kg) category at the Commonwealth Games
Badminton: Shuttlers Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won the 37th gold for India as the doubles pair beat Singapore's Shinta Mulia Sari and Lei Yao 21-16, 21-19.
In the deciding match, Saina Nehwal took India's gold medal tally to 38 on the closing day winning the yellow metal at the badminton women's singles by beating Mew Choo Wong on Malaysia 19-21, 23-21, 21-13.
Asian Games:
Immediately after the successful Commonwealth Games Indian athletes went to Guangzhou to participate in the Asian Games in November. Significantly, the Indian athletes continued their brilliant performance as the 2010 edition turned out to be the best performance of India in the Asian Games.
Indian athletes grabbed 14 gold medals in the Asian Games.
Highlights of Indian performance:
Shooting: Shooting has always been India’s strong point and in the Asian Games too the shooters clinched lots of medals.
Ace shooter Gagan Narang won silver in the individual event, but the India's rifle shooters missed the gold by a whisker and settled for the team silver in the men's 10 metre air rifle event, giving India the much needed start at the mega event.
In the individual event, Gagan Narang shot 103.7 in the final round (597 in qualifying) for a total of 700.7 points to win the silver.
The Indian team comprising Heena Sidhu (381), Annu Raj Singh (380) and Sonia Rai (379) shot a total of 1140 points to win the silver in the 10 metre air pistol event of the Asian Games.
India's Vijay Kumar won the bronze in men's 25m Center Fire pistol event at the Asiad.
Ronjan Singh Sodhi won gold in men's double trap in Asian Games shooting.
Billiards: Pankaj Advani won gold for India in English billiards at Asian Games.
Swimming: India's Virdhawal Khade won bronze in swimming at Asian Games. He is first Indian swimmer in 24 years to win an Asian Games medals as he bagged the bronze in the 50m butterfly event.
Athletics: Ashish Kumar of India clinched a bronze medal in Men's Floor event of Artistic Gymnastics at the Asiad.
Sandhyarani Devi won the silver in the Asian Games in the women's Sanshou 60kg wushu event.
India's Preeja Sreedharan bagged a gold, while Kavita Raut clinched the silver in women's 10,000m race at Asian Games.
Ashwini Chidananda won gold in women's 400m hurdles at the Asian Games while Joseph Abraham bagged silver in men's 400m hurdles.
Indian women's 4X400m relay team have won India's 13th gold in the Asian Games.
Kabbadi: Indian Men as well as the women team clinched gold in kabbadi.
Skating: In the Pairs Skating event, India's Anup Kumar Yama and Avani Panchal won bronze.
Rowing: Rower Bajrang Lal Takhar on Friday opened a new leaf for India's sporting history by becoming the first Indian to win gold in the Asian Games' men's singles sculls competition in China.
Indian rowers bagged two silver medals in the men's four and lightweight four teams in the Asian Games. The quartet, Anil Kumar, Saji Thomas, Ranjit Singh and Jenil Krishna won the silver in the men's four team event finishing a distance of 2000m in 6:16.79.
Golf: The Indian men's golf team retained the silver medal at the Asian Games. The Indian quartet of Rashid Khan, Abhinav Lohan, Abhijit Singh Chadha and Rahul Bajaj finishing second with a total of 10 over 874.
Snooker: India's Aditya Mehta won the bronze medal men's snooker singles event.
Hockey: Indian hockey team won bronze medal.
Chess: India's Harika Dronavalli won the bronze medal in the women's individual chess at the Asian Games.
Boxing: Vikas Krishnan bagged gold for India winning the final of the men's 60kg bout.
Beijing Olympic bronze medal-winning boxer Vijender Singh won gold in the Asian Games.
Archery: India's men's team won the archery bronze medal after they defeated Chinese Taipei.
Tarundeep became the first Indian archer to win a Asian Games silver medal in the men's individual event.
Tennis: India's tennis pair Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh won the sixth gold for the country in the men's doubles event while Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan settled for the silver at the Asian Games.
Somdev Devvarman became the first Indian to win a gold medal in men's singles tennis by beating top-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the Asian Games.
Indian athletes performed well in both CWG and Asiad this year, ushering a new hope to the Indian fans, a new dream of excelling in the London Olympics in 2012.
Getting Hitched:
The year was significant more for another reason as two Indian superstars from the sporting fields tied their knots. Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi also got engaged in September.
Sania Mirza-Shoaib Malik : Indian tennis icon Sania Mirza was bowled over by Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, as they tied the knot early this year.
M.S.Dhoni: Disappointing all his hysterical female followers, the stylish Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni tied the knot with long time friend, Kolkata girl Sakshi Rawat.
And not forgetting, the Soccer World Cup
Soccer World Cup: 2010 was a crucial year for all soccer fans as World Cup was staged in South Africa for the first time in the African nation and there was a surprise in the winner. After fierce battles on the fields, European champions Spain clinched the trophy by defeating Netherlands in the final by 1-0 margin.
Spanish star Andreas Iniesta scored the solitary goal in the final match during the extra time to win the Cup for his nation.
World Cup extras:
Vuvuzela: The Soccer World Cup showed to the entire world a new kind of flute, named ‘Vuvuzela’. A long and heavily decorated flute, it charmed the soccer stadiums throughout the event. The loud monotone produced by the horn became iconic and popular during the World Cup soccer. Interestingly, few players had complained that the monotonous sound produced by multiple vuvuzelas blown by the fans during the games disturbed their concentration level. Yet, Vuvuzela remained smash hit to the soccer fans all round the globe.
Waka Waka and Waving the Flag: The two theme songs titled ‘Waka Waka’ sung by the sizzling Shakira and ‘Waving Flag by ‘K Naan’ became immensely popular. In fact, ‘Waka Waka’ has today reached a cult status and surely become a part of merriment and high spirit.
Octopus Paul: The 2010 Soccer World Cup will also remain significant for the wonder Octopus Paul. The psychic Octopus gained fame and reputation during the Soccer World Cup in South Africa, as it had successfully predicted the results of all the seven games played by Germany.
The entire world was surprised by the strange capability that Paul had, and it was exceptionally astonishing when it predicted successfully that Spain would win the World Cup by defeating Netherlands in the final encounter.
During the World Cup, Paul used to make all his predictions in a unique manner by choosing a mussel from one of two jars bearing the flags of World Cup opponents.
As a result of Paul’s successful predictions the aquarium authorities had presented him with a replica of his own World Cup which was decorated with his favourite dish called mussels.
Paul was retired after the 2010 FIFA World Cup and died soon after.
As one more year rolls over, it is now the best time to look behind and observe how the Indian sportspersons performed in 2010, which was one of the crucial years with several mega events like Commonwealth Games and Asiad. Correspondent Supriyo Hazra highlights the year in the sporting arena ...
As one more year rolls over, it is now the best time to look behind and observe how the Indian sportspersons performed in 2010, which was one of the crucial years with several mega events like Commonwealth Games and Asiad. Correspondent Supriyo Hazra highlights the year in the sporting arena
Willow and Leather
Cricket despite all its attendant criticism and match-fixing controversies, is still a religion in India. So we begin our flashback with the game. The world of Cricket witnessed several ups and down. I was specially a good year for Indian cricket with India performing well at nearly all the tournaments. However, the mighty Australians and their long reign received a severe blow as India snatched the number 1 Test ranking spot from them. Beside, they also lost the T-20 World Cup final to England. Surely, their long their prolonged reign in International cricket received a serious setback in 2010.
Highlights of the mega cricket events:
World Cup T-20 championship:
The World T-20 championship was staged in West Indies this year. England won the cup by defeating Australia by 7 wickets in the final.
India continued their poor show in the Cup, as Dhoni and his men failed to reach the semifinals of the event. India lost all their super 8 phase matches despite starting the tournament in flying colours by defeating South Africa and Afghanistan in the league phase.
India had won the trophy in the first edition of the World T-20 championship that was staged in
South Africa in 2007.
Asia Cup:
Despite a miserable campaign in World T-20 in West Indies, the ‘Men in Blue’ lifted the Asian Games trophy this year by defeating defending champions Sri Lanka in the finals by 81 runs. Indian team brought back the cup to India after a long gap of 15 years.
Australia-India Test series: The India- Australia Test series is a much talked about series these days. And this time it was India who defeated Australia in both the Test matches to lift the Border-Gavaskar trophy. With this victory India maintained their number one spot in the ICC International Test ranking, which was dominated by Aussies for a long period of time in the past. India also clinched the Test series against New Zealand who toured India later this year.
A future captain?
Gautam Gambhir: India discovered a new captain this year, when Gautam Gambhir led the team in the five match One day International series, in the absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Gambhir and his young Indian team white-washed the series by 5-0 margin.
Master Blaster ruled the field
‘Master blaster’ Sachin Tendulkar had a wonderful 2010 in the cricketing field as he continued to add more and more records in his crown. Sachin Tendulkar became the first cricketer to score 50 Test century, this year. He scored his 50th Test century against South Africa in December. Sachin touched another milestone, crossing 14,000 runs in Test match, during the Test series against Australia this year.
Sachin created a significant record in One Day International cricket as he scored the first double century in the limited over format of the game. Sachin had scored 200 against South Africa earlier this year, when the South Africa had toured India.
Off the Fields:
Sachin not only shone and created records on the field, he also added more feathers to his crowns off the field this year.
He was conferred the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force (IAF), in 2010.
Adding to his lengthy list of accomplishments, Sachin Tendulkar was named a Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), earlier this year.
On Nov 11, with exactly 100 days to go, the ICC (International Cricket Council) announced the appointment of Indian batting legend, Sachin Tendulkar, the official event ambassador for cricket’s flagship event, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.
India Premiere League:
The cash rich Indian Premiere Tournament came back to India in 2010 after being hosted in South Africa last year. The tournament was equally colourful and exciting, like its previous editions, with Chennai Super King, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni winning the trophy by defeating Mumbai Indians by 22 runs in the final.
Googly for KKR :
Kolkata Knight Riders: Despite a good start to the league with two back to back victories, Sourav Ganguly and his men failed to reach the Semi Finals of the event this year as well. In fact, the performance of the team was equally poor like the previous two editions, disappointing its fans considerably.
Cricket and controversies:
2010 can be considered to be one of the eventful years in the world of Cricket both for the good reasons as well as the bad ones as the ghost of corruption and controversy hounded the ‘Gentleman’s game’ significantly.
Pakistan cricket:
In the International arena the spot fixing controversy rattled the cricket lovers once again. This time it was Pakistan and Pakistani players who were most affected by it.
Levelling serious charges of corruption against members of the Pakistani cricket team and creating a national embarrassment and crisis for their country, UK tabloid News of the World showed video footage of a middleman accepting thousands of pounds in return of guaranteeing three no-balls at precise times during the Lord’s Test match between Pakistan and England.
Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were the three players whose named got involved with this shameful scandal.
Caught in the spot fixing controversy, the anti-corruption body of the game's governing
body ICC suspended the three players provisionally in early September.
Later on another Pakistan player, Zulqarnain Haider, triggered a new controversy, as he announced his retirement from International cricket on the grounds of receiving life threats after his match-winning performance in 4th One Day International against South Africa.
Haidar claimed that all these factors forced him to leave the national cricket team in Dubai and run for his life to UK and seek asylum there.
India’s IPL controversies:
IPL chairman Lalit Modi was suspended from his position by BCCI after the completion of the third edition of the league on the ground of financial irregularities, early this year. Chirayu Amin was appointed the new interim chairman of Indian Premiere League.
The two significant IPL franchisees Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab faced severe problems this year as, cracking the whip; the Governing Council of the IPL on Oct 10 terminated their contracts. Some court ruling went in favour of the teams but the uncertainty persists.
Hockey:
Mega Events: The Hockey World Cup was staged in New Delhi, early this year. The mighty Australians clinched the trophy by defeating Germany in the final.
Highs:
India won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games this year.
India continued their good performance at the Asian Games and clinched the bronze medal at Guangzhou. They defeated South Korea in the third place playoff.
The bronze ended India's eight-year-long wait for an Asian Games medal. The last time the men's hockey team made a podium finish was a (silver) last in the 2002 Busan Games.
Sultan Azlam Shah Cup: Defending champion India continued its good form this year as well as they were declared joint winners along with South Korea in a rain affected final match.
Lows:
Hockey World Cup: India finished 8th in the Hockey World Cup this year.
CWG:Despite winning a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, India was thrashed by gold medalist Australians by a heavy margin of 8-0 goals.
Tennis:
Australian Open:
Men’s Single event: Roger Federer clinched the first trophy of the year by defeating A. Murray.
Women’s Single: Serena Wiliams won the women’s single event by defeating J. Henin.
French Open: Rafael Nadal won the Freanch Open Men’s single title this year by defeating R. Soderling.
Women’s Single: Francesca Schiavone won the Women’s Single event at the Roland-Garros.
Wimbledon:
Men’s Single: Rafael Nadal added one more feather to his crown as he won the title by defeating Novak Djokovic in the final.
Women’s single: Kim Clijsters won the title by defeating Vera Zvonareva.
Men’s Single: Rafael Nadal clinched the Wimbledon title by defeating Tomas Berdych in the final.
Women’s Single: Serena Williams won the title by defeating Vera Zvonareva.
Indians on the Tennis court:
Australian Open: Indian Tennis icon Leander Paes and his mixed doubles partner C. Black won the mixed doubles title.
French Open: Lukas Doluhy and Leander Paes became the runners up at the Men’s doubles event.
Wimbledon: Leander Paes-Cara Black won the Mixed doubles title.
U.S. Open: Indo-Pak pair pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi reached the final of the Men’s Double event before crashing out in the final to the Bryan brothers.
Commonwealth Games: Creating history, Somdev Devvarman clinched a gold for India in the Commonwealth Games as he became the first Indian to achieve the feat, beating Australia's Greg Jones 6-4, 6-2 in the men's singles final.
Asian Games: India's tennis pair Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh won the gold medal for the country in the men's doubles event at the Asian Games this year. He also had won the Singles Gold medal at the Asian Games, stunning top-seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
Truly, the year belonged to Somdev as he ensured that India will have some one to carry forward the national legacy in tennis in the days to come.
CWG: Sania Mirza won the silver medal at the CWG women’s Single final.
Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan settled for the silver at Mixed Doubles event at the Asian Games.
Badminton:
India had a wonderful year in Badminton, and it is the Hyderabadi badminton sensation Saina Nehwal who made it possible, as she kept on winning one tournament after the other.
This year she performed really well to reach the number 2 ranking and of course the entire nation will hope that she continues her form and becomes the number 1 player in 2011. Highlights of her achievements this year:
Hits:
She won the Indonesian Open at the beginning of the year.
Saina also won the Singapore Open super Series in 2010.
Indian Open Grand Prix, 2010, was also won by the stylish Hyderabadi girl this year.
She won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in the women’s single event.
Saina received the prestigious Khel Ratna Award in 2010 for her wonderful perfomance in the game for India.
Lows:
Saina Nehwal suffered a straight defeat to China's Shixian Wang in the women's singles quarterfinals at the World Badminton Championship.
She also crashed out of the Asian Games after suffering in the quarter final match of the women’s single event in China.
Commonwealth Games:
It was a glorious moment in India as Commonwealth Games was staged in New Delhi this year in October. However, much of the enthusiasm and pride was undermined by corruption. The darker phase of controversies hounded the games before its beginning casting a big doubt over its occurrence. The under prepared Games village and the scandals associated with the preparation of the Games had completely shattered the image of India in the global platform. Regularly, media all over the world highlighted the gloomy picture of the ham-handed preparations. The Games’ chief architect in India Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Organising Committee, was singled out for most of the mismanagement and corruption charges. However, the Games finally took place and eventually turned out to be the most successful event as far as the Indian athletes are concerned.
India stood second in the medals’ tally with 38 Gold medals, 27 Silver medals, 36 Bronze medals and with a total medal haul of 101.
Australia topped the chart with 177 medals, which include, 74 Gold medals, 55 Silver medals and 48 Bronze medals.
Highlights of Indian performance:
Weightlifter Soniya Chanu bagged the first Commonwealth Games (CWG) medal for India by winning the silver in the women’s 48kg category, while her compatriot Sandhya Rani won the bronze.
Sukhen Dey of West Bengal lifted a total of 252 kg (snatch 112 kg and clean and jerk 112 kg) to emerge second and win a silver medal for India at the 56 kg category.
Indian weightlifter Renu Bala won gold in 58kg women’s weightlifting event
Shooting gave India their first Gold: India’s first gold in the Commonwealth Games came from Olympic champions Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang, who won the men's 10 metre air rifle pairs event, by bettering their own Games record.
The 25 m women pistol saw India winning the gold again through Rahi and Anisa, with a score of 1156.
Deepak Sharma and Omkar Singh won silver medal in 50 m pistol.
Omkar Singh also won India its 20th gold by winning the final of Men's Singles 10m Air Pistol.
Tejaswini Sawant and Lajja Kumari Gauswami, clinched silver medal in the women 50m rifle event.
Shooter Gagan Narang bagged a Gold medal in the 10 M Air Rifle individual event
Gagan Narang continued his gold rush throughout the CWG as he and Imran Hasan won India’s 16th gold medal in the pairs 50 m Rifle 3 positions.
The triple gold winner won the fourth gold for himself as Gagan Narang finished first in the 50 mts Rifle 3 Positions singles event.
Shooter Vijay Kumar brought India the 17th medal in the Men's Rapid Fire individual event.
Indian shooters, Vijay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh bagged the yellow metal in the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol (pairs) event as they beat the Malaysian challenge by 18 points.
Shooters Vijay Kumar and Harpreet Singh bagged gold medal in 25m Centre fire Pistol Pairs.
Samresh Jung and Chandrashekhar Kumar Choudhary bagged silver medal in the Pairs 25m Standard Pistol Men event.
Indian shooter Heena Sidhu continued her good form as she bagged a silver at the women’s 10m air pistol event.
Archery: India got its 15th gold in the Commonwealth Games with the women archers team comprising of Dola Banerjee, Dipika Kumri and Bombayala Devi clinching the yellow metal by beating their English rivals.
Rahul Banerjee claimed the individual men recurve Singles title to give India its third gold from Archery piping Lyon Jason of Canada.
Jayanta Talukdar, who was favourite to win the gold in this event, had to be satisfied winning the bronze in the play off for the third place defeating Mathew Grey of Australia.
Athletics: Harminder Singh won a surprise bronze in Men's 20 km Walk event.
Record in the field: For the first time after Milkha Singh won gold in track and field event of Commonwealth Games (CWG) in 1958, Krishna Pooniya bagged gold for India as she took the top spot in women’s discus clearing a distance of 61.51 metres. Surely a new icon was born. It was also a historic moment for Indian athletics as besides Pooniya,
Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil also clinched the silver and bronze in the women's discus throw. Harwant got the silver with 60.16m. The bronze went to Seema with a throw of 58.46m.
The women's 4X400m relay quartet of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji and Mandeep Kaur set the track ablaze by winning the race in 3:27.77, ahead of Nigeria (3:28.72) and England (3:29.51).
Indian men and women's 4x100m relay teams won bronze in the finals.
Table Tennis: Indian women's table-tennis team had won a silver medal after Singapore defeated them in the final.
Indian doubles pair of Achanta Sarath Kamal and Subhajit Saha won gold in the men's doubles table tennis defeating Gao and Yang of Singapore 3-2 after a hard-fought battle.
Experienced Indian pair, Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das, got bronze medal in women's double table tennis in the CWG
Wrestling: Yogeshwar Dutt won gold in 60 Kg Freestyle Wrestling at the Commonealth Games (CWG).
Wrestling: Star Indian Wrestler and current World Champion Sushil Kumar picked up India's 28th gold medal in the Commonwealth Games after he won the final in the 66 kg freestyle wrestling.
Boxing: CWG witnesses a setback as Indian Boxing star Vijender Kumar lost the semi final match. It was an absolute heart breaker for his fans as it was considered that he will surely clinch the gold medal in the 75 kg category.
Indian athlete Manoj Kumar won gold in boxing in the light welterweight (64 kg) category at the Commonwealth Games
Badminton: Shuttlers Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won the 37th gold for India as the doubles pair beat Singapore's Shinta Mulia Sari and Lei Yao 21-16, 21-19.
In the deciding match, Saina Nehwal took India's gold medal tally to 38 on the closing day winning the yellow metal at the badminton women's singles by beating Mew Choo Wong on Malaysia 19-21, 23-21, 21-13.
Asian Games:
Immediately after the successful Commonwealth Games Indian athletes went to Guangzhou to participate in the Asian Games in November. Significantly, the Indian athletes continued their brilliant performance as the 2010 edition turned out to be the best performance of India in the Asian Games.
Indian athletes grabbed 14 gold medals in the Asian Games.
Highlights of Indian performance:
Shooting: Shooting has always been India’s strong point and in the Asian Games too the shooters clinched lots of medals.
Ace shooter Gagan Narang won silver in the individual event, but the India's rifle shooters missed the gold by a whisker and settled for the team silver in the men's 10 metre air rifle event, giving India the much needed start at the mega event.
In the individual event, Gagan Narang shot 103.7 in the final round (597 in qualifying) for a total of 700.7 points to win the silver.
The Indian team comprising Heena Sidhu (381), Annu Raj Singh (380) and Sonia Rai (379) shot a total of 1140 points to win the silver in the 10 metre air pistol event of the Asian Games.
India's Vijay Kumar won the bronze in men's 25m Center Fire pistol event at the Asiad.
Ronjan Singh Sodhi won gold in men's double trap in Asian Games shooting.
Billiards: Pankaj Advani won gold for India in English billiards at Asian Games.
Swimming: India's Virdhawal Khade won bronze in swimming at Asian Games. He is first Indian swimmer in 24 years to win an Asian Games medals as he bagged the bronze in the 50m butterfly event.
Athletics: Ashish Kumar of India clinched a bronze medal in Men's Floor event of Artistic Gymnastics at the Asiad.
Sandhyarani Devi won the silver in the Asian Games in the women's Sanshou 60kg wushu event.
India's Preeja Sreedharan bagged a gold, while Kavita Raut clinched the silver in women's 10,000m race at Asian Games.
Ashwini Chidananda won gold in women's 400m hurdles at the Asian Games while Joseph Abraham bagged silver in men's 400m hurdles.
Indian women's 4X400m relay team have won India's 13th gold in the Asian Games.
Kabbadi: Indian Men as well as the women team clinched gold in kabbadi.
Skating: In the Pairs Skating event, India's Anup Kumar Yama and Avani Panchal won bronze.
Rowing: Rower Bajrang Lal Takhar on Friday opened a new leaf for India's sporting history by becoming the first Indian to win gold in the Asian Games' men's singles sculls competition in China.
Indian rowers bagged two silver medals in the men's four and lightweight four teams in the Asian Games. The quartet, Anil Kumar, Saji Thomas, Ranjit Singh and Jenil Krishna won the silver in the men's four team event finishing a distance of 2000m in 6:16.79.
Golf: The Indian men's golf team retained the silver medal at the Asian Games. The Indian quartet of Rashid Khan, Abhinav Lohan, Abhijit Singh Chadha and Rahul Bajaj finishing second with a total of 10 over 874.
Snooker: India's Aditya Mehta won the bronze medal men's snooker singles event.
Hockey: Indian hockey team won bronze medal.
Chess: India's Harika Dronavalli won the bronze medal in the women's individual chess at the Asian Games.
Boxing: Vikas Krishnan bagged gold for India winning the final of the men's 60kg bout.
Beijing Olympic bronze medal-winning boxer Vijender Singh won gold in the Asian Games.
Archery: India's men's team won the archery bronze medal after they defeated Chinese Taipei.
Tarundeep became the first Indian archer to win a Asian Games silver medal in the men's individual event.
Tennis: India's tennis pair Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh won the sixth gold for the country in the men's doubles event while Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan settled for the silver at the Asian Games.
Somdev Devvarman became the first Indian to win a gold medal in men's singles tennis by beating top-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the Asian Games.
Indian athletes performed well in both CWG and Asiad this year, ushering a new hope to the Indian fans, a new dream of excelling in the London Olympics in 2012.
Getting Hitched:
The year was significant more for another reason as two Indian superstars from the sporting fields tied their knots. Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi also got engaged in September.
Sania Mirza-Shoaib Malik : Indian tennis icon Sania Mirza was bowled over by Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, as they tied the knot early this year.
M.S.Dhoni: Disappointing all his hysterical female followers, the stylish Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni tied the knot with long time friend, Kolkata girl Sakshi Rawat.
And not forgetting, the Soccer World Cup
Soccer World Cup: 2010 was a crucial year for all soccer fans as World Cup was staged in South Africa for the first time in the African nation and there was a surprise in the winner. After fierce battles on the fields, European champions Spain clinched the trophy by defeating Netherlands in the final by 1-0 margin.
Spanish star Andreas Iniesta scored the solitary goal in the final match during the extra time to win the Cup for his nation.
World Cup extras:
Vuvuzela: The Soccer World Cup showed to the entire world a new kind of flute, named ‘Vuvuzela’. A long and heavily decorated flute, it charmed the soccer stadiums throughout the event. The loud monotone produced by the horn became iconic and popular during the World Cup soccer. Interestingly, few players had complained that the monotonous sound produced by multiple vuvuzelas blown by the fans during the games disturbed their concentration level. Yet, Vuvuzela remained smash hit to the soccer fans all round the globe.
Waka Waka and Waving the Flag: The two theme songs titled ‘Waka Waka’ sung by the sizzling Shakira and ‘Waving Flag by ‘K Naan’ became immensely popular. In fact, ‘Waka Waka’ has today reached a cult status and surely become a part of merriment and high spirit.
Octopus Paul: The 2010 Soccer World Cup will also remain significant for the wonder Octopus Paul. The psychic Octopus gained fame and reputation during the Soccer World Cup in South Africa, as it had successfully predicted the results of all the seven games played by Germany.
The entire world was surprised by the strange capability that Paul had, and it was exceptionally astonishing when it predicted successfully that Spain would win the World Cup by defeating Netherlands in the final encounter.
During the World Cup, Paul used to make all his predictions in a unique manner by choosing a mussel from one of two jars bearing the flags of World Cup opponents.
As a result of Paul’s successful predictions the aquarium authorities had presented him with a replica of his own World Cup which was decorated with his favourite dish called mussels.
Paul was retired after the 2010 FIFA World Cup and died soon after.
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