It’s been a rather great year for Indian sports. From cricket, to Olympics, the Paralympics and the likes of pro-kabaddi, everything has flourished in 2016. To start off with, India became the number one test team in cricket. We went through the year being unbeaten in test cricket, and it’s quite an achievement. Of course, this is besides the individual brilliance of Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, which embellished the highs. Kohli is now widely regarded as the best batsman across all formats and Ashwin too holds number one ranking as an all-rounder and bowler.
This year’s also been a year of highs for female athletes. The medals won by P.V. Sindhu and Sakshi Malik more than made up for an otherwise disappointing Olympics. Then there was also Dipa Karmakar, who came in fourth in the very unusual sport of gymnastics, and became a world competitor at the highest level.
The fact that Sindhu didn’t limp to a bronze, but fought for gold before getting silver was a big deal. It was also important to note that Sakshi came from behind to win her bronze. Even the Phogat sisters were delightful, despite the injuries and falling out of competition. Sania Mirza too has had a very good run, even if she had a disappointing Olympics stint.
Deepa Malik (Photo: PTI)
I happened to meet some of the athletes who won medals at the Paralympics too, especially Deepa Malik and Mariyappan Thangavelu. The performances were fantastic but the tournament came as a tailwind to the actual Olympics. Unfortunately, this is something that happens not just in India, but the world over. Everyone’s attentions drop as the Olympics end. But these are heroic stories. Just the effort to overcome handicap and compete is great, then going on to win medals makes it even more credit-worthy.
Some of the disappointing sports stories of the year, unfortunately, also have a tie-in with the Olympics. As far as shooting and archery is concerned, India was supposed to pick up a few Olympics medals in these two disciplines, but that didn’t happen. More than Abhinav Bindra, it was the others who were expected to win.
Sakshi Malik (Photo: PTI)
Certainly, in tennis there’s been a lingering controversy of the players, casting a huge shadow on the game. It’s the lack of trust amongst players themselves, that’s caused a bit of a setback. The sooner these differences are resolved, the better it will be, because while we’ve got multiple grand slam winners in doubles, if we don’t get the combination right, or it’s accompanied by constant controversy, it obviously affects the performance. To that end, we would have expected a medal in the Olympics in the doubles, if not the singles, when it came to tennis. It didn’t happen and it was really disappointing.
Dipa Karmakar (Photo: PTI)
On the other hand, badminton received a huge impetus this year. Saina Nehwal has touched number one place a couple of times. Players like Sindhu, Saina and Parupalli Kashyap, who can now be counted in the upper echelons of the game. There are about eight or ten of them who are at the world level. This shows not just the expansion of the sport, but also the fact that India is now a powerhouse of the game.
Other sports too are coming good. Professional kabaddi league has really taken off, surprisingly, after being a sport that wasn’t on anybody’s radar. This year, we even won the pro-kabaddi world cup. There was the men’s junior hockey world cup that we won after convincingly defeating stellar oppositions.
All of these have been big highs. There seems to be an overall impetus being given to sports in India. That’s showing up and hopefully it will show further.
As told to Nishtha Kanal, Ayaz is a sports writer, and author.
