The World of Sport

What a year! We won the Cricket World Cup, saw our team lift the SAFF football championship, cheered on the fast and furious F1 racers at the first ever Indian Grand Prix, and clapped as Sehwag smashed a double hundred! But there was lots more happening in sport. Here’s a list of the eventful, successful, and shameful that may have slipped under your radar. — By Sally H

HEAVY VETTEL
German wunderkind Sebastian Vettel, 24, blitzkrieged past all competition and easily defended his World Championship title from last year. He also clobbered Spaniard Fernando Alonso as the youngest-ever double World Champion in the record books of Formula 1. Year one in decade two of century 21 was the year of the Vettel as the youngest driver to score a grand chelem (pole position, win, fastest lap, and led every lap) managed 11 wins, three fastest laps and further etched his name in the record books with 15 pole positions in one season. Phew! What lies ahead for this motoring maniac?

For starters, to beat his idol Michael Schumacher, five more championship successes and 70 victories will help him close the greater German racer’s all-time best hits. About the target, he humbly responded, “That’s too far.” But his hero Schumacher told Bild, “Sure he can do it.” Wait, was there a conference in humility we weren’t invited to? The German told a news channel, “Driving on Indian roads is tougher than F1.” But no one’s begrudging him that. Everyone loves the boy wonder and can’t wait to see him bust records and continue raising the bar. For the record, Vettel’s other idols are Michael Jackson - let’s just say Kobe Bryant and Usher are safe for now.

THE DAY THE DRIBBLING STOPPED
With an expression so smug it seemed only reserved for quasi-dictatorial bosses of sporting bodies, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced, “We want to play basketball,” and signalled the end of the five-month long 2011 NBA lockout. Sixteen games have been cut off the 2011-12 season schedule. Unions of players (mainly their representatives) and their owners had to re-negotiate internal details making the lockout attract a lot of flak from fans and critics calling the players ‘spoilt’ and owners ‘totalitarian’, but in the end, it’s the NBA owners who’ve won. Fans are left with a 66-game season! Simply put, in six years’ time, NBA team owners will manage to bring in over $1 billion into their accounts by bargaining their kitty of the Basketball-Related Income (BRI) split from 43 per cent in the old deal. Even more startling, figures grow more than double ($2 billion say some) if both sides are okay with the deal for the next ten years. The fact remains that in a country faced with looming threats of another economic downturn, it was agonising for fans to see gazillionaires fighting over money.

INDIAN GP: RUNAWAY SUCCESS
Gossip is powerful. Gossip is destructive. Gossip is productive. In 1997, whispers abound of India ‘soon’ hosting a Grand Prix. Like a draft of wind, this one came and left and was forgotten. Six years later, a plot was examined in Bengaluru but it was Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad that were going in with guns ablaze to bring the sporting event to the outskirts of the capital city. The Maximum City tried to make the Indian Grand Prix theirs. Then all went quiet. Some blamed the change in power, others, a few legislations.

In 2007, word spread of five cities being examined for the ‘runaway cause’ - Bengaluru, Gurgaon, another possible location near Delhi, Mumbai, and even Lucknow. Funny enough, the last and most unlikely candidate was chosen. The town of Greater Noida in the suburbs of Delhi was selected as the city of racing dreams. After a delay of a year, all rumours and gossip came to rest and the Indian Grand Prix was all the country could talk about. As 2011 came along, we saw the track take shape. 5.137km long, on a Graywacke surface, $400 million in cost (loose change for Bernie Ecclestone), and boasting the longest pitlane in Formula 1, the Jaypee Group unveiled the Herman Tilke-designed Buddh International Circuit to the ecstatic home crowd, and praise from F1 drivers and the motoring community. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took home first prize, followed by McLaren-Mercedes’ Jenson Button, and Scuderia Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

It was a long road this F1 where blood and tears were shed to reach the outcome.

GLORY, ALL RIGHT
2011, the All Blacks, (the New Zealand National rugby team) became the Arsenal FC of 2004-2005, Chicago Bulls from the 90s, and the New York Yankees since the beginning of the World Series Championships. What a beginning of a new decade it has been for them; they beat France 8-7 to win become the Rugby World Cup champions, snagged the IRB's current Team of the Year position, became the top points scorers of all time and the only international rugby team with a record winning margin against every test nation they have played. Wow! Before the final against France this year, scrum-half Piri Weepu blogged, “Personally, I want to go out there and enjoy myself, do my job first and then try for something above and beyond the usual.” The clincher? They won at home. The All Blacks have clocked a record-making 75% wins in all competition they have been part of since 1903. The boys’ ancestral war cry, the Haka (Maori challenge), is one of the most entertaining pre-game performances, and is not restricted to the team alone. The Kiwis (rugby league), Wheel Blacks (wheelchair rugby), the Falcons (Australian Rules Football), and the Ice Blacks (ice hockey) all perform the ceremonial dance before the start of their matches - but none is as primal, exciting, or watched as that of the All Blacks.

EDGE OF REASON: RACISM IN FOOTBALL
It was the most horrific sight of the year: Cote d’Ivoire international and Galatasaray right back Emmanuel Eboue dodging a flood of water bottles, cigarette lighters and such hitting him during a derby match against his team’s Super Lig rival, Besiktas.

Whether the act was racially-motivated or simply to heckle the player while near the touchline, it was heartbreaking to watch the 28-year-old star appeal helplessly to the paper tiger of a match referee. If the gross act was a result of his ‘diving’, one wonders if a Sergio Busquets or a Joey Barton would ever get the same treatment. Think about it. The name that is every defensive wall’s nightmare, Uruguayan centre
forward Luis Suarez, joined Liverpool FC in the last minute transfer window during the 2010-2011 season. He came, he wowed, and he made many fans. Before Anfield, the 28-year-old was the leading scorer for AFC Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie. And then, controversy struck. Suarez does not deny calling Manchester United’s French leftback Patrice Evra ‘negro’. The Uruguayan says the description is not offensive as in Western Europe or North America, but is culturally accepted in his hometown. He claims it is not different from other players calling Liverpool’s Dutch winger Dirk Kuyt ‘blondie’.

On the other hand, England international and Chelsea captain John Terry was the redeemed hero after his post as captain of his country was handed to Steven Gerrard. Now, the feared defender (no pun intended) has been facing brickbats over a row he had with Queens Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand after the latter blamed Terry for having used racist slurs. Police have been assigned the task of investigating the allegations.

But the icing on the cake has to be the dictatorial FIFA chief, Sepp Blatter. He and his ludicrous PR machinery said, “There is no racism in football!”

INDIA WIN WORLD CUP
On a sweaty Summer’s day in 1996, the Indian cricket team limped out weakly of a semi-final match in Eden Gardens, Kolkata, to a potent-looking Sri Lankan team at a tournament held in the Indian subcntinent (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). Home advantage did come through as the latter won the championship. Eleven years ater, the Boys in Blue, fired up by performances in Twenty20 cricket, Champions League, ODIs and test cricket as individual or groups, had the home advantage: India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh hosted the 2011 Cricket World Cup. After the Blues clobbered Australia (India: 261/5; 260/6) in a game of wits and calm that gave the team the confidence they needed, they went on to own the semi-final match against neighbouring Pakistan (India: 260/9; Pakistan: 231) in Mohali’s PCA Stadium. On a sweaty summer’s evening in Wankhede Stadium, it was Sri Lanka who sang the blues as they packed up, dignified still, and ended the tournament in second place after conceding six wickets to India. The nation will always remember Yuvraj ‘Man of the Series’ Singh letting out a victory cry and breaking down in tears after MS Dhoni clinched the match by hitting a six. Sachin Tendulkar finally won a World Cup with India. India is the first-ever nation to win and host a World Cup. Epic. Period.