Let’s celebrate some of the achievers, beginning with sports other than cricket which, after all, remains a minor world sport, played seriously only by the Commonwealth countries.
The big star should be Sushil Kumar, the mighty little Hercules, who became the first Indian wrester to win a World Championship – he achieved this remarkable feat in Moscow in September with a 3-1 win over Alan Gogaev of Russia in the final of the 66 kg freestyle event. He also won the gold at the Commonwealth Games; he missed the Asian Games due to injuries, but by then he’d done enough to lay a claim to being the best Indian sportsperson of the year.
Another world champion would also be a worthy claimant to that title – Vishwanathan Anand. Forced by the Icelandic ash cloud to travel by road, he endured a 40-hour journey by road to reach Sofia to take on Veselin Topalov, the challenger. Anand lost the first game but after a tense battle in his opponent’s home territory, he emerged the winner, yet again.