Monday, 5th January, 2009
Games Impact of India’s rising economy was seen in every field especially the games. Except Hockey India improved its world ranking and previous records in various games. But the sensation of the year was the Indian Premier League cricket tournament that was played between different teams having national and international cricket players. This tournament lasted for a month and the event was watched by millions of people world-wide. This tournament added a lot to the popularity of the game but also created danger to the longest version of the game. The final of the game was played between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. Australian veteran Shane Warne led Rajasthan Royals won the final tournament comfortably. The popularity and success of this tournament is the indications of the bright future of the game.

Hockey 2008 was another disappointing year for the Indian hockey. The Indian team had failed even to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Internal factionalism, financial crunch, Government apathy and red tape collectively added to Indian hockey’s death. Some people blamed the undemocratic handling of the affairs by the Chief of the Indian Hockey Federation K.P.S Gill. But Indian junior hockey team brought back smiles to the Indian hockey fans. The Indian junior’s team with their all-round performance retained the junior’s Asia Hockey Cup. In the semifinal India had defeated its archrival Pakistan which brought back the memories of the historical encounters between both the teams. In the final, India defeated South Koreans and retained the Asia cup. This win was seen as another milestone in the revival of the Indian hockey.

Weightlifting Another sports body that remained in headlines for wrong reasons prior to the start of the Beijing Olympic Games was Indian Weightlifting Federation. Allegations of corruption were made against some official of the federation. It was said that one of the official of the federation has accepted Rs.5 lakh as bribe to select dope tested Shailaja Pujari instead of one silver and two bronze medal winner, Monika in 69 kg in the Asian Championship. It must be learnt that Shailaja was caught for doping and IWF had to face two years’ of ban for it. But with this controversy it came to light that ‘why Indian players fail to perform well at the world level events.
Tennis 2008 proved out to be a turning point in the emergence of Indian tennis and cricket. During this year many Indian tennis players marked their presence to be felt at the international arena. Indian due of legendary Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi was once again seen playing together in the Ordina Open tennis tournament in s’Hertogenbosch (The Netherlands). They had united after a long gap and it was viewed as their preparation for the Beijing Olympic Games. They had bridged their personal differences and had decided to play together once again to win a medal for their country in the Olympic Games. But they could not turn their hopes into reality and were defeated in the quarterfinal round. But in the month of September Leander Paes gave a cheering news to Indian tennis lovers by winning the US Open mixed doubles Grand Slam final. It was his career’s eighth grand slam title.
Badminton Saina Nehwal emerged as the rising Indian Badminton star. Though her hopes of winning an Olympic medal were dashed in the quarterfinal round but she had stunned the world five and four seeded Wang Chen in the tournament. She overcame her Olympic debacle and won the Chinese Taipai Open 2008 by defeating Malaysian player Li Ya Lydia Cheah in the month of September. Except it she also won the Indian National Badminton Championship and World Junior Badminton Championship. She also won a gold medal at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games. Except it, she had reached the finals of some tournaments but had lost.

Boxing Indian boxers gave rise to the hope of winning some more Olympic medals when three Indian Boxers had succeeded to reach the quarterfinal rounds of their respected categories. But only Vijender Singh succeeded in winning a Bronze medal for his country when he lost to his Cuban opponent Emilio Correa Bayeaux in the semifinal of middleweight (75kg) category.
India’s another Olympic bronze medal was won by grappler Sushil Kumar who had lost in the very first round of the game but defeated three opponents on the trot to win the medal in the repechage.

Archery and Shooting Except Abhinav Bindra none of the Indian archers and shooters could win an Olympic medal for their side. Abhinav Bindra India’s Olympic gold medal drought by winning the individual gold medal in men’s 10m air rifle shooting event. Rest of the Indian archers and shooters disappointed with their dismal performance and failed to win even a single medal.

Cricket India emerged as a leading power in the game of the cricket. India first challenged the Australian supremacy and defeated them at the various venues. India won the 5-one day series from the Sri Lankans but lost the test series. Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh won top ICC awards. Dhoni became the first Indian to win the ICC ODI Player of the Year Award. Yuvraj Singh was awarded with a special prize for his massive six sixes off Stuart Broad’s over in a match during the Twenty20 World Cup. India won the 3-test match series from Australians and thus poised a big challenge to their number one position. During this serial two prominent Indian cricketers announced their retirement. They were legendary leg spinner Anil Kumble and left hand batsman and former Indian cricketer Sourabh Ganguly. Earlier in the month of in the month of June, Ganguly had been adjudged Castrol Asian cricketer and Asian Batsman of the Year awards in a function held in Karach. After Australia it was the England team that visited India. They were defeated in both the longest and shorter versions of the game. It will be injustice to not the mention the name the master blaster Sachin Tendukar whenever be talk about the Indian cricket. During the India-Australia test series he became the leading test run getter after surpassing Brian Lara’s record of 11,953 test runs. During this year he also created a record of hitting most centuries in both versions of the game. With every run he is creating a world record now.

Literature, Bollywood and Related Fields
There were some encouraging news for the Indians in the fields of literature, cinema and related fields. Bollywood lost some prominent figures of the industry during this year. Some of them were, B.R Chopra and playback singer Mahendra Kapoor. But Bollywood continued to grow and expanding its popularity base around the world. It was because of the Bollywood’s increasing popularity that drew many Hollywood directors, actors and actresses towards Indian entertainment industry. A deal was signed between Bollywood dirctor Sajjid Nadiadwala and some Hollywood actors that brought both the entertainment industries close to each other. Aamir Khan’s directorial debut film ‘Taare Zameen Par’ was nominated for the Oscar race. It must be learnt that he himself had produced, directed and acted in this film. Earlier his ‘Lagaan’ had also been nominated for the Oscar award in the year of 2002.
The Hindustani Classical Music legend, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi of ‘Kirana Gharana ‘ was awarded with India’s highest civilian award ‘Bharat Ratna’. Indian Novelist Aravinda Adiga became the one of those three novelists who has won the prestigious 50,000 pounds ($87,000) Booker Prize for their debutant novels. He was awarded with this award for his debutant novel ‘The White Tiger’.