Highlights for Indian sports in 2008

Abhinav Bindra created Olympic history for India on August 11, 2008, when he won the gold medal in the 10 metres air rifle event in Beijing. This was the country's first-ever individual Olympics gold medal. Bindra, who shot a 10.8 in the final, got the better of favourites like Athens Olympic champion Zhu Qinan of China and Henri Hakkinen of Finland as he gave India its best sporting moment ever, arguably.

Saina Nehwal had a fantastic 2008 season as she earned laurels aplenty to establish herself as one of world badminton's best players. Saina became the first Indian woman to reach the quarter-finals at the Olympics Games, when she reached that stage at Beijing before losing a three-setter to Maria Kristin Yulianti.
Her loss at Beijing not withstanding, Saina went on to reach greater heights in the last four months of 2008 as she became the first Indian woman to break in to the top-10 of the world badminton rankings and also the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. Saina won the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open 2008 in September and ended the year with a semi-finals appearence at the World Super Series. Saina, who is currently ranked No 10, was also named The Most Promising Player in 2008.

Vijender Singh created history for Indian boxing when the middle weight pugilist became the firxt boxer from the country to win an Olympics Games medal, as he won the bronze in Beijing. While this made Vijender the face of Indian boxing, the efforts of Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar who reached the quarter-finals in Beijing in their respective weight categories also acted as a catalyst for their sport to finally the fascination of the nation.

A little after 2 30pm on October 17, the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali was engulfed in fireworks as a country of a billion and more people celebrated yet another record by Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the best batsman in the modern era. When Tendulkar glided a Peter Siddle delivery and ran three runs on the first day of the second Test match between India and Australia in Mohali, he overtook West Indian batting legend Brian Lara to become the highest run scorer in the history of Test matches. During his half-century in this innings, Tendulkar also became the first batsman in Test cricket history to make 12,000 runs.Tendulkar then continued his love affair with the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai as he scored his 41st Test century in the first of the two matches against England in December 2008, as India successfully chased the then fourth-highest target to win a Test match. The master batsman now has almost 29,000 runs (12, 429 in Tests and 16,422 in one-day internationals) and 83 centuries (41 in Tests and 42 in ODIs) to his name in his international career. Sushil Kumar gave India only its second Olympics Games medal in wrestling when he won the bronze medal in the 66kg Freestyle Wrestling event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. KD Jadhav had won the bronze medal in wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games. Sushil's medal was also India's second of the Beijing Olympic Games -- the first being the gold won by Abhinav Bindra in shooting.

Jeev Milkha Singh won four titles in 2008 including the Barclays Singapore Open, which made him the first player in Asian Tour history to cross $1 million in a single season. He earned a record $1.45 million from 11 tournaments with one win and two runner-up finishes at the Enjoy Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open and Ballantine's Championship in South Korea. He also won twice in Japan and once in Europe to rise to a career high 36th in the Official World Golf Ranking.Jeev finished 12th in the Order of merit in Europe and also had his first top-10 finish in a Major at the PGA Championships this season.
A brilliant season for Jeev was capped off when he was named the Players' 'Player of the Year' and also won his second Order of Merit crown in three years at the Asian Tour's Awards Gala 2008.

Viswanathan Anand successfully defended his World Chess championship title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. With this win, he became the first player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats: Knockout, Tournament, and Match. He will next defend his title in the World Chess Championship 2009 against the winner of the challenger match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky. Anand also successfully defended his title at Linares in 2008.

MC Mary Kom returned from a two-year sabbatical to become the women's world champion for the fourth time, prompting the sport's world governing body to call her 'Magnificent Mary'. The mother of two from Manipur relied on just four months of training and sheer determination to stamp her authority yet again in the women's World Championship.
India regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after five years in 2008 as the hosts defeated Australia by 172 runs in Nagpur to win the four-Test match series 2-0. India had also won the second match of the series in Mohali defeating Australia by 320 runs -- their biggest margin of victory in terms of runs ever. The series also saw the retirements of two Indian legends -- Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly -- and the two former captains couldn't have asked for a better farewell gift.
The Indian Premier League, which is the brainchild of BCCI vice-president and IPL Chairman & Commissioner Lalit Modi, was seen as the Indian board's response to the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League. The first season of the IPL was from April 18-June 1, 2008 and Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural edition of the league.
The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately $1 billion over a period of five to ten years. All of these revenues are directed to a central pool, 40 percent of which will go to IPL itself, 54 percent to franchisees and 6 percent as prize money. The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share of IPL will be 50 percent, franchisees 45 percent and prize money 5 percent.
The players' auctions for the franchise teams of the IPL were held on February 20. The IPL placed icon status on Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Virender Sehwag. VVS Laxman initially named an icon player, later voluntarily opted out of his icon status to give his team (Deccan Chargers) more money to bid for players. Icon players were paid 15 percent more than the highest paid player in their respective teams.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, known as the "Indian Express", formed one of the best doubles pairings in tennis history, but in spite of their success, the duo play with different partners now for various reasons. However, they played together again for a brief period in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics Games, where they lost in the quarter-finals to eventual gold medallists Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.
2008 has been a fantastic year for Indian cricket, and a part of that is the fantastic starts that Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have given the team at the top of the batting order. In 16 Test innings in 2008, Sehwag and Gambhir added 972 runs at an average of 60.75 with a highest partnership of 182. The pair had three century and five half-century partnerships in Test matches in 2008. The pair was also successful in one-day internationals adding 898 runs, including three century and four half-century partnerships in 14 innings at an average of 64.14 and a highest partnership of 155

Sourav Ganguly announced before the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series against Australia, that he would retire from international cricket at the completion of the series. The decision could have been prompted by the fact that he was not included in the Rest of India team for the Irani Trophy tie against Ranji Trophy champions Delhi. Ganguly batted well in his farewell series, but was dismissed for zero in his last international innings. However, Ganguly will be remembered as the captain who taught India to play an aggressive brand of cricket and as an attacking batsman who achieved phenomenal success in both Test and one-day cricket.

Anil Kumble, who made his Test debut against England at Old Trafford on August 9, 1990, retired from international cricket after the third Test match against Australia in New Delhi on November 2, 2008. Kumble ended his glittering career with more than 900 international wickets, and was India’s Test captain when he called it quits. Kumble, who took 619 wickets in 132 Test matches, is the second-most capped Indian player in the longest version of the game. One of the lasting memories of his captaincy will be the dignity and the calmness with which he handled himself and the team during India's acrimonious tour of Australia in January 2008.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni continued to impress as captain of the Indian cricket team as the Men in Blue did extremely well in 2008 winning 19 of the 29 one-day international matches that they played. Dhoni has passed on his positive attitude and determination to win to his teammates as well and the Indian team is a unit now, where everybody enjoys each other's success. He took over as India's Test captain after the retirement of Anil Kumble mid-way through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series against Australia. Dhoni showed respect for Kumble and Sourav Ganguly's contributions to Indian cricket, as he handed the reins of the team to Ganguly for the ending stages of the Nagpur Test against Australia, and then asked Kumble to collect the trophy with him. Dhoni has captained India in 5 Test matches, of which the team has won four and drawn one.

Gagan Narang made up for his disappointment at not getting a medal at the Beijing Olympics Games by firing world record equalling scores of 600/600 in Germany and 400/400 in Bangkok. In fact, Narang set two record en route to winning the 10 metres air rifle event in the World Cup Finals in Bangkok. Narang entered the final round with an equalled world record, and then set a new record of 703.5, as he broke the record set by Thomas Farnik of Austria who had shot 703.1 at the World Cup Finals at Granada, Spain in 2006.

The Under-19 World Cup team led by Virat Kohli brought more cheer for Indian cricket when they defeated South Africa in the rain-affected final to bring home the trophy. The young guns were given an open-bus ride when they came back to Bangalore before heading to their respective homes. Kohli has already played a few one-day internationals for the senior Indian team, and is a batsman with immense potential.

The year 2008 was also memorable as it was the 25th year anniversary of India's win the 1983 World Cup on June 25, 1983. Kapil Dev's team was felicitated by the BCCI and also had a reunion at the Lord's, which was the venue of the historic win against the West Indies in 1983.
Soccer legend and Argentina's national coach Diego Maradona mesmerised the Kolkata crowds wherever he went during his two-days trip to the city on December 6 and 7, 2008. Needless to say, Maradona was overwhelmed by the affection showered on him and has said he would like to help Indian football after his contract ends with the Argentine Football Federation.