Vijender, Paes bring joy, India struggles to host CWG

Amid the sporting world raising doubts over India's ability to organise the 2010 Commonwealth Games, champion boxer Vijender Singh and tennis star Leander Paes have shown there is much more to achieve than merely cashing in on Olympic medals.

Unlike some other Olympic medal winners who have failed to attain the standards they set for themselves, Paes and Vijender tried to improve upon their performance.

Paes won his bronze at the Atlanta Olympics 13 years ago and he is still among the top five doubles players in the world, having won two more Grand Slam titles with his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy. Vijender added to his Beijing bronze last year a world championship bronze, the first by an Indian.

Paes' estranged buddy Mahesh Bhupathi continued his sway over mixed doubles by winning the Australian Open with compatriot Sania Mirza, her first Grand Slam title. Young Yuki Bhambri joined the celebrations by winning the Junior Open at the Melbourne Park.

Curiously, playing without an injured Paes, the Indian Davis Cup team made the World Group after 11 years, ironically beating South Africa - the country they had refused to play in the Davis Cup final over three decades ago because of its apartheid policy.

The much maligned Indian football team has started making a little headway, retaining the Nehru Cup and towards the year-end winning the SAFF Cup.

The success apart, Indian sport had its share of controversies. India is still to come up with a unified hockey body, despite repeated warnings by the international federation. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) as well as its Organising Committee is unable to convince the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) that it is capable of hosting the 2010 Games.

Then there was Australia's refusal to play their Davis Cup tie in Chennai citing security concerns while the Weightlifting Federation of India (WFI) was caught in a doping scandal, forcing its entire executive to quit.

The year started with a bang as Delhi teenager Bhambri beat Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas of Germany 6-3, 6-1 in the Australian Open final in January, but as the year progressed, the politics of sports hogged the limelight.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) set a 15-day deadline for India to cobble up a unified hockey body or face the consequences of losing the right to host the 2010 World Cup. Th ad hoc committee, which had been running the game in the country since the IOA superseded K.P.S. Gill-led Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), formed Hockey India (HI), buying time from FIH to hold the elections later.

On the field, the women's team triumphed at the Champions Challenge tournament in Russia and the men's team won the Azlan Shah gold and bronze at the Champions Trophy in Salta.

In tennis, India was in the news thanks to Paes, who won his 10th Grand Slam title this year. In June, Paes and Dlouhy rallied from a set down to overpower South African Wesley Moodie and Belgian Dick Norman to clinch the French Open doubles title for their first Grand Slam together in June.

In September, Paes took his second Grand Slam titles into double digits when he and Dlouhy made a remarkable comeback to beat Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas at the US Open men's doubles final. It was Paes' sixth men's doubles title and 10th overall in 19 final appearances.

Later in the month, Indian tennis added another feather to its cap by winning the Davis Cup play-off in Johannesburg against South Africa 4-1. Rohan Bopanna and Somdev Devvarman, who reached his first ATP final in Chennai in January, carried India on their shoulders. Yuki Bhambri too made a successful Davis Cup debut in the last inconsequential tie. It was a great win, though they were lucky to make the play-off after Australia's refusal to play them in the Asia-Oceania Group I tie in Chennai in May.

Indian soccer is no longer the butt of ridicule, though the national team took only a small step forward by standing up to international competition. The team was sent to FC Barcelona's Nou Camp Stadium to prepare for the Nehru Cup and the month-long training-cum-competition trip to the renowned Spanish Club transformed the side. The Indians retained the cup, with goalkeeper Subrata Paul emerging the hero of the 6-5 shoot-out victory over Syria.

Off the turf, All India Football Federation (AIFF) president and union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who took over from gravely ill Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, used all his persuasive powers to not only fork out Rs.250 million from the cash-rich Indian cricket board for preparing the national team for the 2011 Asian Cup but also got Rs.100 million from the sports ministry for the under-23 team's participation in the 2010 Asian Games. The under-23 team's triumph in the recently concluded SAFF Cup is a clear sign that Indian football is on an upward curve.

While Indian sport celebrated some of the exciting moments, it received a severe jolt when CGF chief Michael Fennell shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the lack of preparedness by the 2010 Commonwealth Games organisers -- not a happy development if India is aiming to set a new benchmark in organising the biggest sporting event the country is hosting since the 1982 Asian Games.

After much haggling and nitpicking, Fennell appears satisfied and is backing India to hold the Games successfully, though he has told the Organising Committee that time is against it and it should buck up. For good measure he has decided to appoint a high-level technical review committee to monitor the progress of infrastructural work, souring the relationship between the Organising Committee (OC) and CGF. The ruffled feathers were smoothened at a meeting between Fennell and OC chief Suresh Kalmadi in London during the inauguration of the Queen's Baton Relay.

With the successful hosting of the World Badminton Championship in Hyderabad, India proved its ability to host big events successfuly. Despite the late pullout of the England team and two Austrian players leaving mid-way, due to security concerns, the tournament passed off peacefully.

Though Indian players, including star player Saina Nehwal, couldn't progress beyond the quarterfinals, they performed creditably during the year. Sania won her maiden Super Series title in the Indonesian Open badminton in Jakrata in June. India's top mixed doubles player Valiyaveetil Diju and Jwala Gutta also made it to the final of the World Super Series Masters Finals in Malaysia. The Indian pair has been making waves on the international scene since its comeback in early 2008, after a year's break.

Though the sports ministry doesn't consider Formula One as a sport, Force India's Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella created history by giving India their first-ever Formula One race point, finishing a sensational second in the Belgian Grand Prix, even as Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen overtook the Italian, who started from the pole, to win the race.