Everyone knew that it was going to come some day but when the Sachin Tendulkar retirement happened, it was taken differently by fans across the world. It was celebration for some while mourning for others. The man himself was a never-before emotional self and sure was the reason for many a tears. The sight of him touching the Wankhede pitch as a mark of respect became the moment of 2013. Abhishek Purohit brings to you what else also happened in the year gone by
BYE BYE SACHIN
World cricket's colossal figure Sachin Tendulkar bid a teary farewell in November in front of a packed Wankhede stadium in his hometown, bringing curtains to an extremely enviable 24-year old career in which he created tons of records. His followers were left mourning, seeing their most-adored and most-worshipped sportsman taking his last walk into and out of the field. Since making his debut against Pakistan in 1989, for his fans, Tendulkar was a habit. His legion of fans were used to seeing the Mumbai-lad coming to bat with chants of 'Sachin Sachin' and then take his typical pre-stance crouch before facing the first ball. He amassed 34,347 international runs over 200 Tests, 463 ODIs and a solitary T-20 with 100 international centuries standing out. A fluent 74 against the West Indies in his final Test meant he was going on a high during a highly emotional moment. Tendulkar culminated his farewell with an enthralling speech in which he thanked each and everyone who helped him grow as a legend and for his fans, he said, "Sachin Sachin will reverberate in my ears till I stop breathing".
Hockey girls shine
While their male counterparts failed to reach even the quarterfinal stage and both the senior teams struggled at the world level, Under-21 hockey girls team revived India's hopes of a bright future when they claimed a first-ever third-place finish at the Ergo Junior Girls Hockey World Cup played at Monchengladbach in August. The Neil Hawgood-coached India had surprised top teams in the competition and when they finished their campaign with a bronze, beating England 3-2 via penalty shoot-out, it became a memorable sporting moment for the country. The gutsy girls — most of them from poor background hogged the limelight for a while, reasserting the fact that Indian hockey is alive and kicking. Apart from this, hosting a professional league like Hockey India league, similar to IPl format, was a positive thing for Indian hockey.
Viju not so high
The 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Vijender Singh was embroiled in a drugs scandal in March. The Punjab police raided an NRI's residence in Chandigarh and later found drugs in a car parked in front of a drug dealer's home. The car belonged to Vijender's wife and the drug dealer Anoop Singh Kahlon told the interrogators that even the ace pugilist had consumed drugs at least 12 times. However, after a couple of turbulent months, both the Police and the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) cleared the boxer.
IPl's shame
Three cricketers of Rajasthan Royals — S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan were arrested by Delhi Police on May 16 for their alleged involvement in a spot fixing scandal in some matches of the sixth edition of the cash-rich Indian Premier league which shook the entire cricket-loving counrty. Apart from these players' arrest, another former RR player — Amit Singh and 11 bookies were also taken into police custody. This led to a widespread probe. Small-time actor Vindoo Dara was also put behind bars and his testimony helped the police arrest Gurunath Meiyappan, one of the top officials of Chennai Super Kings and son-in-law of BCCI president N Srinivasan. later, Delhi Plolice filed the chargesheet against the players and BCCI handed out a life ban to Sreesanth and Chavan. Srinivasan also had to step-aside following the controversy, which left cricket in a shambolic mood.
Dhawandar and Champions Trophy win
After Virender Sehwag was dropped due to bad form, Indian fans were fearing that their Team India's aggression at the start will not be seen again. But, another Delhi-lad Shkhar Dhawan put that doubt to rest with a blistering and breathtaking 187 of 174 balls of 107.47 against Australia in Mohali in March. He completed his 100 in 85 balls, making him the fastest centurion on debut ever in the history of Test cricket. He played every shot in the book with aplomb en route to glory and the knock transformed him into a confident player which enabled his fine run in the ODIs as well where he has hit five hundreds in the year. Of those five tons, two came during India's successful Champions Trophy campaign, making him one of the biggest impact player of the year. We wish that he continues to make more hundreds and continues to twirl his moustache. For the team, the CT title was the highlight of the year which came just after the IPl spot fixing scandal.
Youth dynamism
With Sushil Kumar and seasoned Yogeshwar Yadav taking a backseat and nursing their injuries, Indian wrestling unearthed three new stars in Amit Kumar, Bajrang Kumar and Sandeep Tulsi Yadav. The youngsters' trio scripted India's best ever show in the World Championships in the absence of Olympic stars. While 20-year old Amit reached the final in the 55kg category, another freestyle grappler Bajrang snatched a bronze medal. To triple the happiness, 25-year old Sandeep surprised many when he claimed bronze in the 66kg category of the traditional format of wrestling, the Greco Roman style. Similarly in the Asian Championships, Indians wrested the team title in the freestyle format with four medals. Amit Kumar Dhankar won the 66kg event and Hitender Beniwal clichéd a bronze in the 120kg event along alongwith Amit's gold and Bajrang's bronze.
Wrestling's return to Olympics
Citing lack of viewership , coupled with the talk of the sport being dull, a 15-member executive body of the International Olympics Committee, had decided to banish one of the oldest sport after 2016 Rio Olympics. But, wrestling grappled with squash, baseball and softball, changed its rules to modernize itself and also added weight categories for women to help itself with 49 votes against 24 for baseball/softball and 22 for squash during voting. The vote, which was to add one of the three sports, guaranteed that freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling would be contested at least through the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 2024 Olympics, which have yet to be awarded to a country. The IOC’s decision to include wrestling in Olympics brought a lot of cheers to India, who had got two Olympics medal in 2012 london Games and the game is still adored and followed among the masses.
Saina missed out
While the previous year had witnessed Saina Nehwal on top of the world with a bronze medal at the 2012 london Olympics and four major titles in her pocket, 2013 turned out to be completely contrasting. The shuttle queen ended the year without a trophy and also lost her rhythm to a certain extent. What took the steam out of her wheel is the lack of fitness. She started the year while rehabilitating a toe injury, fitness issues continued in the form of niggles in the toe, knee and ankle. Her world ranking dropped to eighth spot from three which gave way to admission that the extra kilos that she had put on during the off days had made her slower in the movement on the court. She has decided that she will play less in the coming year in order to remain fit for the crucial forthcoming events like the CWG and the Asian Games.
New kid on the block
In August, PV Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win a medal — bronze — in singles competition at the World Championships. The 18-year old’s superlative effort won India the first medal since Prakash Padukone’s bronze in 1983. She made 2013 a dream year by clinching two more titles in Malaysia and Macau. Standing at 5'10", this lanky shuttler is emerging as one to watch out for. Similar to Saina Nehwal, Sindhu is too from Hyderababd and trains with the london Olympics bronze medallist under the watchful eyes of national coach P Gopichand at the latter’s academy. She also reached her career-best world ranking of 10 giving enough signs for more good things to come.
IOA in doldrums
Indian Olympics Association (IOA) and the Sports ministry were busy trying to help India return to International Olympic Committe (IOC) fold as the Indian body was banned a year ago. The corruption-tainted IOA embarrassed itself by trying hard to defy the IOC for most part of the year before being forced to bow under pressure in an eventful 2013. Having blatantly violated the IOC's diktats on more than one occasion throughout the year, the IOA was finally left with no option but to amend its Constitution as per the world body's directives following an ultimatum by it. The decision to amend the IOA constitution in line with Olympic Charter was taken at its Special General Body Meeting on December 8 after the IOC served the ultimatum last month that it would de-recognise India if the "charge-framed" officials were not barred from contesting polls, among other directives.
Jhajharia’s triumph
The 32-year old athlete from Rajasthan created history by becoming the first differently-abled Indian to win a Gold at the IPC Athletics World Championships as he stood first in javelin throw in the sixth edition of the event in lyon in July. Competing in the F46 category as he has his left arm below elbow amputation, he made the effort of throwing 57.04m — a Championship record — to win the medal. His world record stands at 62.15m which he had set during his Gold medal winning show in 2004 Paralympics Games.