Sports in 2010: Year that was

Cricket

Yet again I cant stop writing without mentioning the greatest batsmen of modern era – Sachin Tendulkar. He had a dream run this year. He became the first person to hit a double hundred in a one day international match. He went on to score 7 hundreds this year in tests to reach his 50 hundreds in test cricket. The immediate next is 11 centuries away from him. The only prize that has been eluding Sachin for past 20 years is the World cup and I hope and wish that India wins this world cup 2011. The other important cricketing events this year are mentioned here.

Common wealth Games 2010

CWG 2010 held in India has been the most controversial and tainted sports event with respect to the amount of corruption that took place in organizing the event. The only icing on the cake for India is that they have won 101 medals which is the highest for India in the Games history. They elbowed out England to clinch second spot in the overall medals table. With cricket generally dominating Indian sport, CWG has brought lot of talent from other sports into limelight.

16th Asian Games

Immediately after CWG India has shown their best ever performance at the Asian Games held in China. India created history by by winning 64 medals which included 14 gold. The last 2 days were crucial for India as the Indian boxers have fared well to increase the medal count. The star boxer Vijender Singh who disappointed India in CWG won a gold medal here on the penultimate day.

Hockey World Cup

Even though it was a forgettable year for Australia in Cricket, their power packed hockey team won the Hockey world cup after 24 years defeating the defending champions Germany. India being the host nation has put up yet another poor show at the Hockey World Cup that was held in New Delhi. India stood at 8th place. Amidst all the politics in Hockey federation, I hope that Indian Hockey will show some sporting spirit and attitude and quality of a champion in 2011.

FIFA World Cup

The worlds most watched event has been FIFA world cup for years and this year was no different. With the much coverage and predictions of the Octopus, Spain secured the World Cup for the first time with Andres Iniesta scoring the only goal. It was an enthralling and nail biting final against the Netherlands which went on into the extra time. It was a blow for a Dutch side for being defeated for the third time in finals. They were so near yet so far from the dream coming true. The biggies like Italy, France and England crashed out in the early stages of the tournament.

NBA

The Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Boston Celtics in seven games in the NBA finals to clinch their 16th NBA title. This was the second straight NBA title for The Lakers. LeBron James, player for the Miami Heat team went on to become the MVP for the season.

F1

2010 has been an exciting year for F1. There has never been a season in the sixty year history of Formula One when four drivers arrived at the ultimate race with a chance to take the title. There was a very tough fight between Alonso and Vettel. Finally Sebastian Vettel emerged the winner for 2010 season leading by just 4 points to Alonso’s 252. For Vijay Mallaya, it was really a good season as his got 68 constructors points and stood 7th in the table losing the 6th position by just 1 point to Williams-Cosworth.

Golf

I am not a vivid follower of golf. But there were two incidents which caught my eye this year. One was the public appearances of Tiger Woods darlings and the second one was, Arjun Atwal became the first Indian to win a PGA Tour event with a one shot victory at the Greensboro Classic in August.

Tennis

I have been a big fan of Federer over the years. This year has been not so good for him and my interest to follow the tournaments has reduced. But I liked Federer’s arch rival Nadal finishing career grand-slam by winning the US Open title. There were some memorable matches this year. The most memorable part was the longest match ever played in the history of tennis between French qualifier Nicolas Mahut and seeded American John Isner during Wimbledon. The scoreboard read 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 70-68. India can be proud of something here. Somdev Devvarman created history by winning the tennis gold in the men’s singles category at the Asian Games, a first by an Indian. He also teamed up with Sanam Singh to win the men’s doubles event. The Indo-Pak tennis pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi reached the finals of US Open and for their message of ‘Stop War, Start Tennis’, the duo also bagged the ‘Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Of The Year’ award.

Badminton

After Sania Mirza bringing Hyderabad on to the global map, for the past 2 years Saina has take over the job. The Hyderabadi became the first female Indian shuttler to win three back-to-back titles. She won Indian Open Grand Prix Gold, Singapore Super Series and defended the Indonesian Open. This year golden run did not end there. She went on to win the Gold at the CWG 2010. Even though it was a disappointing show at Asian Games, she didnt stop there and her hunger for success has guided her to win Hong Kong Open in November making it the third Super Series title this year. She was conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Padma Shri awards this year. She also reached the Number 2 spot which is her best ever ranking.

I wish to see more and more excitement in sports in 2011

India Inc’s got a lot to learn from Sachin Tendulkar

Found this very good article on Sachin Tendulkar in India Times website:

Sachin Tendulkar started playing for India when George Bush Sr was the president of the United States, the Berlin Wall was still standing and an inward looking Indian economy growing at the ‘Hindu’ rate.

The sheer longevity of his career offers an object lesson in staying focused. His 22-year-long career, with 50 test centuries and 46 one-day international tons, is not just a source of joy for his fans and followers, but can also be veritable handbook on excellence, leadership and management for businesses. What are the lessons Tendulkar offers? We spoke to some cricket crazy CEOs for an insight.

“The most important lesson is the fact that talent without discipline is useless tinsel. It takes you nowhere. Companies and entrepreneurs who do not bring in a certain discipline and rigour can never succeed. Tendulkar is maniacal about his preparation for every single innings he plays be it a crucial test match or an inconsequential ODI,” says K Ramkumar, executive director and HR head, ICICI Bank .

He recollects watching him during the 2003 World Cup match against Pakistan at Centurion Park when Tendulkar sat alone with his gear perhaps visualising the match-winning knock of 98 he eventually played.

“When Australia toured India in 1998 with Shane Warne at his peak, Tendulkar realised that his ability to counter the legspin coming out of the rough would be crucial. Several weeks before the tour began, he got the former India leg spinner L Sivaramakrishnan, who had retired by then, to bowl around the wicket and into the rough in the nets,” adds Ramkumar.

Although Tendulkar’s two stints as captain proved joyless, he now seems to lead the team through his performance without being designated as a leader. “Cricket is a game that involves decision-making in the shortest possible time between the time the ball leaves the bowler and reaches the other end in a fraction of a second. Sachin has honed his skill at taking decisions to the finest possible level. It is a quality essential for successful leadership. Also leaders need to have capability to have more than one solution to a given problem. Sachin has many,” says Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises .

“The first and foremost lesson for entrepreneurs is to start young, as Tendulkar did. You give yourself that much more time and opportunity to succeed. And if you can remain focused and humble, the sky is the limit,” says Raghavendra Rao, the CMD of Chennai-based Orchid Pharmaceuticals , who begins his day with a special prayer for Tendulkar whenever India plays.

“Tendulkar epitomises the mindset of wanting to grow from scratch even after achieving the greatness threshold. He never tends to cool his heels. Companies and CEOs too must always think of starting from scratch even when they hit their targets of say $1 billion revenue. His greatness is that he does the same thing that he has been doing for the last 25 years, but with greater passion every time he takes the field. He has never tried his hand at anything other than cricket. He feels most secure in his 21/2 square foot home called the batting crease,” explains R Suresh, CEO of the executive search firm Stanton Chase .

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/india-incs-got-a-lot-to-learn-from-sachin-tendulkar/articleshow/7141957.cms

Cricket in 2010

Cricket in 2010

Pakistan Spot Fixing & Ball tampering

In the recent past tranquility something that is missing in Pakistan cricket. They had a shambolic tour of Australia losing all matches in all the formats. As a result PCB has banned Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik. They also fined several players who were involved in the ball-biting incident in Perth. PCB was about to come out of this and then came the shocker from British media report which alleged that some players were involved in spot fixing which was very new to the cricketing world. The has pushed Pakistan cricket into deeper mess. ICC suspended Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. Meanwhile ICC was still struggling to find a compelling evidence against the players and then came a new twist in the shape of Zulqarnain Haider. The wicket keeper disappeared in Dubai before a match and showed up in London seeking asylum and stating that his life was under threat from match fixers.

Imran Khan, arguably the best captain Pakistan ever had quoted on these incidents as “Cricket in Pakistan faces its biggest crisis and so does the country. We are in a mess”

Ageless Tendulkar

While Pakistan was in total mess, across the border in India, things were much rosier. Many players came so close yet were so far to reach this milestone while Tendulkar finally got his first double century in one-day cricket’s history against South Africa in February. The 37-year-old batsman also completed his 14,000 Test runs in a match against Australia in October. He finally finished his year in a style by rounding off his Test Hundreds to 50 while on tour against South Africa. He is also the highest run getter in tests for 2010. He was finally awarded the ICC Cricketer of the Year award which was one of the feather missing in his cap.

Tendulkar quoted “It’s a state of mind. For the last two years, I have been doing well. I have been really enjoying my batting. I believe doing well is a habit and a good habit. So if you have this good habit, you shouldn’t let it go.” as secret of his on going stupendously fabulous form. Another accolade came in the form of honorary group captain in Indian Air Force.

IPL Chaos

Lalit Modi, the super star last year who was IPL commissioner, was suspended after allegations of corruption. He was the main brain behind the crickets richest event which involved  powerful politicians to Bollywood stars to big industrial giants. In just three-year stint he was dethroned for “individual misdemeanours”. The chaos began with an irresponsible twitter message by Modi over Shashi Tharoor. Amidst all this controversy, IPL still came out as a winner and hot property and got two new franchises Kochi and Pune. They were sold for $700 million more than eight original franchises put together.

England’s Reason to Smile

England have waited enough to win their first ever global trophy in any form of cricket. This year they emerged winners in the Twenty20 World Cup. Collingwood’s team comprehensively defeated Australia in the final and continued the same dominance in the till the end of year. They also started their strong campaign in Ashes by winning the second test and taking the lead. Australia finally stormed back to level the series with a win at Perth. While England’s form improved their ICC rankings, Australia’s decline slumped them to fifth place in the ICC Test rankings after a 2-0 whitewash in India.

Magical Muttiah

He came out strongly even though he was criticized for his action all through his career. Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan retired from his illustrious Test career, after taking his 800th Test wicket off his last delivery amid intense drama in a test against India. The magic man knew what he was doing and so confident of his bowling, that he announced his retirement while he was 8 wickets aways from this 800 wicket mark. Yet again he bowled magical spells and bagged the required eight wickets. Muralitharan: 800 and done

Last but not the least

- Chris Gayle scored the one and only Test triple century of the year and his second for the West Indies against Sri Lanka.
- The savior Laxman gave one-wicket victory to India with a bad back against Australia in a Mohali Test.
- Peter Siddle sizzled with an Ashes hat-trick in the Brisbane Test.
- Brett Lee, Flintoff & Shane Bond announced their Test retirement
- Cricket made its Asian Games debut in Guangzhou. India did not feel necessary to send a team while Bangladesh won the medal.
- Many experiments were done on the game like

Split-innings one-dayers suggested by Tendulkar were tried out in England and Australia.
ICC announced new Test and One-day championships
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tried out a pink ball and advocated day-night Tests.

Overall Sachin Tendulkar yet again set new records & standards to the game, and England, who gave the game to the world, finally won a World Cup. Forgettable events are spot-fixing & the IPL controversy.