Sports, India: 2018
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Highlights of 2018
2018, in brief
December 28, 2018: The Times of India
The year that’s going by had its share of moments and incidents which made news for all the wrong reasons.
SANDPAPERGATE
Cameron Bancroft stuffing yellow sandpaper in his underpants will go down among the most bizarre of scenes witnessed anywhere in the world of sport. Who stuffs sandpaper inside underpants? And that too bright yellow in colour, the sort that can’t be missed. Australia paid a heavy penalty as Bancroft’s not-so-secret act, apparently at David Warner’s behest and with tacit understanding of Steve Smith, had the entire team in the dock. Allegations of ball-tampering, not new to Test cricket, surfaced yet again and with it came a storm that blew away Australia’s selfstyled cultural superiority that other cricket teams have tried copying over the years. Cricket Australia, left shame-faced in the aftermath, banned Smith and Warner for a year and Bancroft for nine months and made way for a flurry of changes in their administration.
MITHALI-POWAR SPAT
If women’s cricket ever hoped to make the headlines on the front pages of newspaper, 2018 turned out to be that year, albeit for all the wrong reasons. A spat between India’s senior-most woman cricketer Mithali Raj and interim coach Ramesh Powar — one that took place in the Caribbean in November, when India participated in the World T20 — took women’s cricket by a storm when letters written by these two individuals to the BCCI got leaked to the media and all hell broke loose. Matters didn’t end with the leaking of letters. The fight between Mithali and Powar even left the members of the Supreme Courtappointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) divided with Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji falling out with each other and making public statements of disagreement over Mithali’s allegations and the eventual sidelining of Powar. Rai appointed a fresh ad-hoc committee, disputed by Edulji, to pick a new coach and it settled for former batsman WV Raman to take over.
JOHRI FACES HEAT
The BCCI CEO has stayed in news for over a good two years now, thanks to the Supreme Court handing him unprecedented powers (powers had earlier predominantly rested with elected members) to run day-to-day affairs in the game. But news never got Johri’s goat the way it did in October this year, when a tweet – later deleted – made unsubstantiated allegations of sexual harassment against the 52-year-old. Two more allegations soon cropped up. An independent inquiry was called upon and a three-member committee investigated the allegations, eventually reaching the conclusion that the CEO wasn’t guilty. For all the bitterness these sequence of events threw up, they left Indian cricket administration divided and in tatters.
SHAMI’S MARITAL WOES
The year turned out to be a tumultuous one for Team India pacer Mohammed Shami. He found himself in news when his estranged wife Hasin Jahan came up with a flurry of allegations – ranging from infidelity, corruption and domestic violence – and filed a police complaint in Kolkata under various sections of the IPC. The BCCI, in the meantime, instructed its Anti-Corruption Unit to look into allegations of corruption and put the bowler’s central contract on hold. The pacer had to sweat it out, both legally and cricket-wise to hold his ground against Jahan, claim the legal and higher moral ground, and join the team on the tour of England.
SERENA STEALS OSAKA’S LIMELIGHT
Serena Williams’ reputation as someone who accepts losses graciously got a dent after she lost to Japan’s Naomi Osaka in the US Open final. It was supposed to be the Japanese youngster’s crowning moment of glory, but Serena’s heated argument with chair umpire Carlos Ramos became the talking point of the contest. The 23-time Grand Slam winner was seen seeking guidance from her coach Patrick Mouratoglou. She was given a code violation for ‘off-court coaching’ and was also docked a point for breaking her racquet. Serena went on to accuse chair umpire Ramos of being a ‘thief’ and sexist.
RONALDO’S RAPE CHARGE
Cristiano Ronaldo’s move from Spain to Italy was the most talked about transfer news in the summer as he switched loyalties from Real Madrid to Juventus. However, even before he landed in Turin, the Portuguese superstar got embroiled in sexual assault charges. He was accused by a former model of attacking and raping her in his Las Vegas hotel penthouse suite in 2009. Kathryn Mayorga, 34, accused Ronaldo in a 32-page complaint filed with a district court in Nevada. Ronaldo vehemently denied the rape accusations.
BOXING IN DANGER OF BEING PUNCHED OUT AT OLYMPICS
Boxing is in danger of being expelled from the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Reason: In October, AIBA, the governing body for boxing, elected Gafur Rakhimov, a man the US Treasury Department has described as “one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals” as its president. A month later, it emerged that the International Olympic Committee is contemplating expelling boxing’s international federation from Tokyo.
MOURINHO-POGBA FALLOUT
Jose Mourinho signed Paul Pogba for Manchester United for a then-world record fee of £89m in August 2016, but the pair had a fractious relationship before the Portuguese’s sacking in December. Mourinho had accused Pogba of lack of respect for his teammates and the club’s fans with the nature of his performance in a Premier League game. In a post-match dressing down delivered in front of the entire team, Mourinho is reported to have called Pogba “a virus”. Pogba, reportedly, was admonished with the words: “You don’t play. You don’t respect players and supporters. And you kill the mentality of the good honest people around you.” Pogba’s conduct after Mourinho’s sacking was questioned in the media by Gary Neville, who accused him of “dancing on the manager’s grave” following a social media post showing the midfielder smirking once the news broke. Pogba, however, closed the chapter by praising Mourinho after the coach’s departure.
WHEN HEGERBERG WAS ASKED TO TWERK
Moments after Norwegian soccer star Ada Hegerberg was honored in Paris as the first female winner of the Ballon d’Or — a major soccer award — Martin Solveig, a co-host of the ceremony asked Hegerberg if she knew how to twerk. Hegerberg, 23, responded with a “no” while looking uncomfortable onstage. The awkward exchange led to backlash on social media and an apology from Solveig. Hegerberg — who ended up dancing with Solveig, a French DJ, to a Frank Sinatra song for a few seconds — said after the ceremony that Solveig “came to me after and was really sad that it went that way. I didn’t think about it at that moment. I didn’t consider it as sexual harassment or anything.”
DOPE GHOST CONTINUES TO HAUNT INDIAN SPORT
The ghost of doping continued to haunt India sport this year too. In May, two-time Commonwealth Games champion, weightlifter Sanjita Chanu, tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid and was provisionally suspended by the international federation. The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said that Sanjita, who had won gold in the women’s 53kg category in the Gold Coast CWG, has tested positive for testosterone. Chanu was provisionally suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). The case took a dramatic turn when the IWF admitted to committing a mistake in giving the exact sample number of Sanjita in its report of her failed dope test. This prompted the embattled weightlifter to demand an inquiry. It got uglier when it emerged that Nirmala Sheoran, one of India’s top women 400m runners, tested positive for a banned substance. To India’s embarrassment, the result came after Sheoran’s sample was retested in the WADA-accredited laboratory in Montreal after it showed negative in (NDTL) in the Capital.
SYRINGE TROUBLE FOR INDIA AT COMMONWEALTH GAMES
Soon after landing in Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games in April, the Indian contingent got into trouble amid speculation that syringes were found in rooms of Indian boxers – a violation of the event’s ‘no needle policy’. Of course, there was no dope-related embarrassment. Subsequently, the Commonwealth Games Federation summoned an unidentified national association, believed to be India, for a meeting with its medical commission. Later the doctor of the country’s boxing team was let off with a reprimand as he was found guilty of not disposing needles safely after injecting vitamins to a fatigued boxer.
Top spells of 2018
December 29, 2018: The Times of India
LYON MAKES THE CASE FOR SPIN
On a pacy Perth pitch, Nathan Lyon — the lone slow bowler in the game — showed what a good finger spinner can do, taking eight wickets to finish as Man of the Match.
His spells fetched him figures of 5/67 and 3/39. That he dominated a set of batsmen who are touted as experts at playing spin speaks volumes of his class. The cherry on the cake was the way he castled Indian opener Murali Vijay and dismissed Kohli off the rough.
PAK UNLEASH NEW MISSILE
Little was known about Pakistan pacer Mohammad Abbas until he scythed through Australia in October. In the second Test in Abu Dhabi, the 28-year-old took five in each innings to bowl the hosts to a series win. Abbas isn’t very quick, but his lethal accuracy gets him a lot of LBW and bowled victims. He took 17 wickets in two Tests at just 10.58 to show Pakistan’s pace arsenal still packs a punch.
YASIR SHAH HAS KIWIS IN A SPIN
The fastest man to 200 Test wickets, Yasir Shah took 8/41 to spin out the opposition for just 90, from 50 for no loss, in the second Test of the Pak-New Zealand series in Dubai. No batsman could read his leg-spinners, googlies, or the one that went straight through. Six fell for ducks. Yasir’s figures, which came in only 12.3 overs, included a triple-wicket maiden. It was truly sensational stuff.
PATEL RAP
When New Zealand beat Pakistan by just four runs in a thrilling first Test in Abu Dhabi, they had Ajaz Patel to thank. Pakistan needed 176 in the fourth innings, but the left-arm spinner took 5/59 to spoil their plans, tempting batsmen to their doom with his variations.
(This list was compiled before Boult’s 6/30 in Christchurch and Bumrah’s 6/33 at the MCG)
PANDYA SPECIAL
He wasn’t rated very highly by the likes of Michael Holding but Hardik Pandya bowled India to their only Test win in England this summer, taking 5/28 in Nottingham. In helpful conditions, Pandya moved the ball around menacingly as the likes of Joe Root and Johny Bairstow edged him repeatedly to slips. It was just a six-over spell but it swung the game.
Some records- Cricket, 2018
From: December 29, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
Some records- Cricket, 2018
Best teams- Test cricket, ODIs, and T20s
From: December 29, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
2018: The best teams in the world in test cricket, ODIs and T20Is
Lead actors
Leading test wicket-takers;
Leading ODI wicket-takers; <br/ Leading test batsmen;
Leading ODI batsmen
From: December 29, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
2018:
Leading test wicket-takers;
Leading ODI wicket-takers; <br/ Leading test batsmen;
Leading ODI batsmen
World records
December 31, 2018: The Times of India
MARY KOM, INDIA
India’s Mary Kom won her sixth gold medal at the Women’s World Boxing Championships and became the most successful boxer in the history of the championships. Mary Kom defeated Ukraine’s Hanna Okhota in the 48kg final in Delhi to bag her seventh medal overall in World Championships. She also drew level with Cuban legend Felix Savon who had won six gold medals in men’s World Championships.
VIRAT KOHLI, INDIA
Indian captain Virat Kohli broke the record of fastest to 10,000 ODI runs as he reached the milestone in his 205th innings, way quicker than Sachin Tendulkar who previously held the record of 259 innings. Kohli reached the mark against West Indies in the second ODI of the five-match series in Visakhapatnam in October during his knock of 157 not out.
The best Indian sportspersons, 2018
December 31, 2018: The Times of India
2018 being an Asian Games and CWG year, Indian Olympic sports saw more highs than lows. But it was the talented ‘teen brigade’ in shooting that shone brightest all through 2018, across events. The emergence of quarter-miler Hima Das was just as heart-warming, as was javelin-thrower Neeraj Chopra’s coming of age. TOI takes a look at all the newsmakers
JAVELIN KING
Indian athletes have often faltered on the big stage, but Neeraj Chopra is an exception. He made the world sit up and take notice when he smashed the junior World Record in javelin en route to a gold medal with a throw of 86.48m at the World Under-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 2016. It came on the heels of his national record-equalling effort of 82.23m while claiming gold in the South Asian Games in Guwahati. In 2017, he struck gold in the Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar with a throw of 85.23m. The son of a farmer from Haryana, Neeraj lived up to expectations by becoming the first Indian to win the CWG javelin gold with an effort of 86.47m this April. He continued his winning spree by claiming gold in the Jakarta Asian Games when he shattered his own national record of 87.43 by clearing a distance of 88.06m.
NO MORE THE BRIDESMAID
She had been showing great consistency in major tournaments only to trip at the last hurdle. Tired of being labelled ‘always the bridesmaid never the bride’, PV Sindhu ultimately did manage to break her ‘final’ jinx when she beat 2017 World Champion Nozomi Okuhara to win the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals in Shanghai in December. That the triumph — a first by an Indian in the tournament — came after losses in seven final appearances in other competitions — speaks volumes of the Rio Olympic silvermedallist’s resolve to end the year on a high.
SUSHIL SHOCKER
India finished with their best-ever medal haul (15 gold, 24 silver and 30 bronze) in the Asian Games in Jakarta, but Sushil Kumar’s performance stuck out like a sore thumb as the two-time Olympic medallist was stunned 3-5 by Adam Batirov of Bahrain in the first round of the men’s 74 kg competition. Sushil had gone to the Jakarta Games — his first Asian Games appearance since winning a bronze in the 2006 Doha Games — close on the heels of losing his first bout in four years, at the Tbilisi Grand Prix in Georgia. Earlier in the year, he grabbed his third Commonwealth Games gold in Gold Coast, but his Asian Games flop show was one of the major disappointments of the year.
ASSAM EXPRESS
Hima Das was a virtually unknown name till she walked into the history books in July. The Assam girl produced a stunning late burst to win the women’s 400m final in the World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Tampere, Finland. She thus became the first Indian woman to claim gold in a World Championship at any level, be it youth, junior or senior. She was also the first Indian — man or woman — to strike gold in a track event at the world level. Running in lane No. 4, Das accelerated when it mattered to cross the finishing line well ahead of the field in 51.46 seconds, edging out Romania’s Andrea Milkos (silver) and America’s Taylor Manson (bronze). The 18-year-old daughter of a farmer went on to better the national mark in her silvermedal-winning effort (50.79s) at the Asian Games in Indonesia later in the year.
SHOOTING STARS
They haven’t yet earned the right to vote or drive a car, but give them a gun and they are ready to dazzle. The 16-year-old Manu Bhaker started Indian shooting’s ‘teenage revolution’ by achieving two firsts on the international stage — starting the year with the women’s 10m air pistol gold at the World Cup in Guadalajara and ending it with another gold at the Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games. In between, she also stunned World No. 1 Heena Sidhu to be crowned champ in the Commonwealth Games. Saurabh Chaudhary, another 16-year-old, struck gold in 10m air pistol in the junior World Cup in Germany before enhancing his reputation with an Asian Games gold in Jakarta and following it up with another top-podium finish in the Youth Olympics. Mehuli Ghosh, the 17-year-old from Bengal, came close to upsetting the established order before settling for silver medals in 10m air rifle at the Gold Coast CWG and Youth Olympics. She made her maiden WC appearance memorable in Guadalajara with a bronze.
Important events
December 31, 2018: The Times of India
HOCKEY HEARTBREAK
It was a year of missed opportunities for Indian hockey and the biggest heartbreak was when India lost to Malaysia in the Asiad semifinals via a shootout under new coach Harendra Singh. They eventually finished with the bronze medal but the failure to defend their Asian title robbed the eight-time Olympic champions a chance of booking a direct berth to the Tokyo Games. The loss also saw the talismanic Sardar Singh quitting the sport. The women’s team also slipped as they went down to Japan in the final.
KABADDI TEAMS’ DEFEATS TO IRAN
When the Indian men’s team suffered a loss to South Korea in the group stages, it was a precursor to the more tragic future. Eventually, they were stunned by Iran in the semifinals, thus bringing an end to their 28-year-long dominant run in the sport in which they won seven successive gold medals. The women’s team too had to settle for a silver after winning two consecutive gold medals as they too lost to Iran in the final.
ARCHERY ELECTIONS
In a year where success was few and far between, barring Deepika Kumari’s comeback and women compound archers’ rise to the pinnacle of world rankings, there is perhaps a new hope as the derecognised Archery Association of India finally held its elections. It saw Vijay Kumar Malhotra’s over 40-year-long reign coming to an end as BVP Rao was elected president. Subject to the Supreme Court approval, it remains to be seen now whether the new regime can bring about any concrete changes to the sport, which was at the risk of being banned.
