2014 year in review: Highs and lows of Indian sports

The year 2014 had been an eventful year for Indian sports. With international multi-sport events such as the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, several Indians had the opportunity to shine and bring laurels to the country. While there were some involved with controversies, some new players emerged, reaching new heights in their respective sports.So let’s have a look at the highs and lows of Indian sports in the year 2014:

#1 Cricket

Rohit Sharma smashed 264 runs against Sri Lank

Highs

Rohit’s Sharma’s breathtaking knock of 264

Rohit Sharma’s world record of 264 in 173 balls against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens was probably the best moment for the Indian cricket fans in the year. Not only this was the best score in a 50-over format but with this epic innings, he became the only player in ODIs to hit two double centuries.

With Rohit’s and few other players remarkable performance, Indian team completed the resounding 5-0 whitewash over Sri Lanka.

Indian team finished as the runners-up in World T-20

Although Indian team lost the final match to Srilanka, reaching the final for a second time was a credible achievement for the Indian cricket.

Lows

Indian team’s poor performance overseas continued as the Mahendra Singh Dhoni led team lost test series in South Africa, New Zealand and England. In the ongoing series against Australia, Indian team lost the first two test matches and could only manage to draw the third test.

Off the field, it was a series of court cases that saw Srinivasan remaining in exile on directives of Supreme Court. The Supreme Court slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India for involving officials and players with "conflict of interest”. However in November Mudgal Committee submitted a report to SC in which the International Cricket Council’s Chairman Srinivasan was cleared of all the match-fixing and betting allegations.

#2 Boxing

Highs

Mary Kom’s gold at the Asian Games

Indian boxing star and five-time world champion M.C Mary Kom bagged her first ever Asian Games gold medal at the Incheon Games. This was an incredible feat as 31-year old Mary Kom, who is also a mother of three children became the first Indian woman boxer to clinch a gold at these games.

Apart from this remarkable feat, Indian boxers won four silver medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Lows

Sarita Devi refused her bronze medal at the Asian Games in Incheon

Sarita Devi controversy

Sarita Devi refused to accept the medal during the presentation ceremony of the 57-60 kg wt. category at the Incheon Asian Games. She lost her semi-final bout to Korea’s Jina Park despite clearly dominating all the rounds. As a mark of her protest to ‘biased umpiring’ she not only refused to accept her medal but instead handed the medal to her opponent. The Indian boxer was later banned for a year by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

#3 Badminton

Highs

Rise of Kidambi Srikanth

It has bene an incredible year it has been for the Indian star. From defeating Lin Dan to clinch the China Open to reaching semis of Hong Kong Open and BWF Superseries Finals, it has been an astonishing performance from the 21-year old Guntur born player. Srikanth has show tremendous improvement this year as has gone up 43 places. Srikanth, who was ranked 47 in the first week of January is now World No. 4 in the latest BWF World Rankings.

Srikanth’s best performance came in November when he stunned the former World No. 1 Chinese star Lin Dan in the finals of Thaihot China Open Superseries Premier thus becoming the first Indian ever to win a Super Series Premier Men's title.

Saina Nehwal proved her dominance

Indian badminton queen and Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal won the Indian Open Grand Prix Gold title in January and Australian Open Superseries title in June. Saina, who is currently ranked 4th in the world became the 1st Indian woman to win the China Open Super Series Premier by beating Japan's Akane Yamaguchi in the final.

London Olympic quarterfinalist Parupalli Kashyap shattered the records by becoming the the first Indian male shuttler in 32 years to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.

PV Sindhu created the history by becoming the first Indian to win two back-to-back medals at the World Badminton Championships. Sindhu won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Copenhagen in August.

Apart from this Indian eves clinched the bronze medal at the Uber Cup for the first time in history of this Badminton tournament.

Lows

Indian doubles star Jwala Gutta lashed out at Pullela Gopichand after winning the silver medal at the Glasgow CWG. Gutta claimed that the chief national coach, P Gopichand had not informed her about the welcome meet at his academy. "We were not even informed about it while he (Gopichand) is supposed to be our chief national coach. He is supposed to include all, and not just a few of his favourites," said Jwala after this incident.

#4 Hockey

Highs

Indian men’s team qualified for Rio Olympics

Indian men's hockey team defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 4-2 in the finals of Incheon Asian Games and hence qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics. It was an incredible feat as the Indian team ended a 16-year gold medal draught at these quadrennial events.

India defeated World Champion Australia for three times in a row

The Indian men’s hockey team delivered a fantastic performance to beat the World Champions and No. 1 team Australia for three consecutive times thus winning the four match series 3-1.

The Indian Under-21 team successfully defended the Sultan of Johor Cup title defeating Great Britain 2-1 in the finals which also made the year more remarkable and memorable for the Indian hockey fans.

Lows

India's chief hockey coach Terry Walsh stepped down from his position after his contractual talks with Hockey India and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) broke down in November.

Walsh quit as the coach of Indian team in October after claiming that bureaucracy hurdles had prevented him from working independently.

#5 Tennis

Highs

Sania Mirza won the WTA Finals

The 28-year-old Indian Tennis star won the historic season finale - the WTA Finals in Singapore along with her partner Cara Black in October and thus became the first Indian ever to win one of the most prestigious titles in the sport.

Sania Mirza grabbed the US Open mixed doubles title

Sania along with Bruno Soares won the US Open mixed doubles title in September. Sania Mirza is currenty the only Indian player in top 10 of the world rankings in doubles.

Indian Aces won the inaugural season of IPTL- Micromax Indian Aces were crowned as the champions at the inaugural season of the International Premier Tennis league. Mahesh Bhupati founded league proved to be a game changer for the Indian Tennis as some of the big names including Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic played in India for the first time.

The Champions Tennis League was successfully held in India to give a huge boost to Indian tennis.

Sania also won the gold medal in the mixed doubles with Saketh Myneni and a bronze in women's doubles with Prarthana Thombare at the Asian Games.

India’s highest ranked tennis women’s singles player Ankita Raina lifted the $ITF 25000 in December in Pune. She became the first Indian to win the event on Indian soil.

Lows

Big names missing from the Indian squad for the Asian Games

Tennis legend Leander Paes, doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna and double gold medalist at 2010 Asian Games Somdev Devvarman withdrew their names from the Incheon Asian Games to improve their rankings on the professional circuit.

Sania criticized for being appointed as the Ambassador of Telangana

Sania Mirza was criticized for becoming the brand ambassador of Telangana. A politician said that Sania is "Pakistan's daughter-in-law" and has no right of being appointed as the brand ambassador of the newly formed state.

#6 Athletics

Highs

Standout performances from Vikas Gowda and Seema Punia

Star Indian athlete Vikas Gowda won the gold medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in the men’s discus throw event. The gold from the 31-year old Mysore born player was special as Gowda became India's only second male athlete to win a gold at the Commonwealth Games after the legendary Milkha Singh won the 440 yard gold way back in 1958.

In women’s section Seema Punia was the best performer of the year. Seema won the gold in women’s discus throw event at Incheon Asian Games and silver at Commonwealth Games.

Gold in 4 x 400m relay

The quartet of Priyanka Panwar, Tintu Luka, Mandeep Kaur and M R Poovamma won the gold medal at Incheon Asian Games by setting a new games record of 3:28.68 seconds.This achievement was remarkable as this was the fourth consecutive gold medal in this category by the Indian team.

Lows

Odisha girl Dutee Chand was suspended for hyperandrogenism. Her natural levels of testosterone were so high that track and field authorities felt it would be unfair to allow her to run with female athletes.

#7 Football

Sandesh Jhingan was declared the ISL emerging player of the league

Highs

Successful completion of ISL

Indian Super league had made a mark on the sporting world in India. Crowd turned out in large numbers to support their team in every match, making the league the fourth best in the world in terms of average attendance.

Number of world class players participated in the league, giving India a global recognition for football. With Indian players also involved in the mix, the ISL has been a promising sign of better things in store in the future.

Lows

Indian team, who were ranked 156th In January 2014 are now ranked 171 in the world, their worst-ever rankings in the sport. Among 46 Asian countries, India are ranked 35th.

#8 Shooting

Highs

Rise of Jitu Rai

It was an incredible year for the shooting star Jitu Rai as he returned with a medal from every competition he participated in this season, his first major international year.

Rai popularly called as the ‘Pistol King’ grabbed the gold in both Commonwealth and Asian Games. He won the silver medal at the World Championships in Spain that earned him a quota place for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The 25-year old Army marksman is currently the World No. 4 in 50m Air Pistol event and World No. 6 in 10m Air Pistol event.

Lows

Although Indian shooters bagged two golds and four silvers at the Glasgow CWG, they failed to make an imapct at the Asian Games as apart from Jitu Rai, no other shooter was able to win the gold medal.

#9 Archery

Men’s team went to win the gold medal at the Asian Games

Highs

Men’s compound team won the gold medal

Indian team comprising of Abhishek Verma, Sandeep Kumar and Rajat Chauhan won the gold in men’s compound event at the Incheon Asian Games. This feat was more remarkable as the trio defeated the reigning World Champion South Korea in the final.

Apart from this, Abhishek Verma also grabbed the silver medal in the individual event.

Lows

India's top archers including Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi failed to win any medal in the year 2014.

#10 Kabaddi

Indian men’s team celebrate winning the Asian Games gold

Highs

Gold medal at Asian games

India men’s and women’s team won the gold medal at the Asian Games. Indian women's team beat Iran 31-21 for its second successive kabaddi gold medal while the men’s team edged Iran 27-25 in a nerve-racking final to win its seventh consecutive kabaddi gold medal.

World Cup champions

In December, the Indian men’s team won their fifth Kabaddi World Cup title beating Pakistan 45-42. Indian women added more joy to the fans present at the Guru Gobind Singh Multipurpose Stadium as they beat New Zealand 36-27 for the second time in as many years.

Pro Kabaddi League success

Pro Kabaddi league was a hit both in terms of TV audience and in-stadia attendances. It took the sport and gave it national recognition.

#11 Other notable achievements

Sharath Gayakwad created a record at the Asian Para-games

Here are some other credible achievements by Indian players in 2014

Swimming

Sharath Gayakwad became the first Indian to win six medals in a multi-disciplinary sporting event when he achieved this feat at the Asian Para-games in Incheon, South Korea. The para-swimmer went past sprinter P T Usha, who had won five medals at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.

Sharaths medal run started in the200m Individual Medley event where he clinched silver. He then went on to win bronze in the 100 m butterfly,100 m breaststroke,100 m backstroke, and the 50 m freestyle. The Bangalorean teamed up withPrasanta Karmakar, Swapnil Patil and Niranjan Mukundan to win bronze medal in the 4x100 m Medley Relay

Sandeep Sejwal gave India its maiden medal in swimmingat the Incheon Games after he won the bronze in the men's 50 metre breaststroke at the Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center.

Gymnastics

Dipa Karmakarwon a bronze medal in the women's vault final at the 2014 CWG. This win made her the first Indian woman to win a Commonwealth gymnastics medal and the second Indian after Ashish Kumar.

This feat was even more special asDipasuccessfully executed the handspring double frontvault.Only three women gymnasts have ever successfully executed the handspring double front vault in the history. Dipa also finished at10thplace inVault at the World Artistic Championships held in China.

Squash

Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa won the gold in brought laurels to the country by winningthe country's first Commonwealth Games medal. At the Asian Games Indian mens team won the gold after defeating Malaysia 2-0 in the final.

Edited by Staff Editor