2022 is one exciting year in sports culminating in a nail-biting grand finale of the Football World Cup. Lionel Messi finally tasted the biggest success in his life by guiding Argentina to a World Cup victory in Qatar. For India, accolades were won in different fields, but the cricket team once again failed to prosper as the T20 World Cup tournament was clinched by England. IBNS correspondent Supriyo Hazra looks back
Thomas Cup victory: Indian badminton team defeated 14-time Champions Indonesia to lift the iconic Thomas Cup and scripted a new chapter in the history of the country.
India wins hearts at Commonwealth Games: India clinched 61 medals at the Commonwealth Games which was held in Birmingham this year. Making the country proud, India stood in the fourth position in the medals tally.
Neeraj Chopra rides and shines again: India’s Olympic hero Neeraj Chopra once again made the country proud by clinching the gold medal in Diamond League. He became the first India to win the yellow medal in the tournament. The javelin thrower won gold with the best throw of 88.44m in his second attempt.
India defeats Pakistan in MCG: Virat Kohli’s magic prevailed on the pitch in MCG this year during the T20 World Cup when India defeated Pakistan in a highly-contested clash in Australia. Kohli smashed unbeaten 82 runs to help India beat the arch-rival in the group stage match of the tournament. The match will remain memorable especially after India scripted the victory despite being reduced to 31/4. Virat Kohli single-handedly changed the course of the match with his heroic knock.
360 degree Surya Kumar Yadav sets the pitch on fire: 2022 saw the rise of Surya Kumar Yadav in the world of T20 cricket. Across formats, Yadav scored 1164 runs from 31 innings. He smashed two centuries and nine fifties in the year. Interestingly, Yadav’s much-talked-about knocks mostly helped India in winning important matches.
India fails in Asia Cup and then T20 World Cup: Cricket enthusiasts across India will be waiting patiently for Rohit Sharma and his men to perform strongly in the 2023 World Cup, especially after the year turned out to be a poor show for them. In UAE, India could not reach the final of the prestigious Asia Cup tournament and to add salt to the injury Pakistan defeated the Men in Blue in a Super Four stage clash.
It was the second time the two arch-rivals had met in the 2022 edition of the tournament. India defeated Pakistan in the group-stage match. Sri Lanka eventually beat Pakistan to lift the trophy. The tournament was played in a T20 format this year keeping in mind the T20 World Cup that was hosted by Australia. One interesting fact about the Asia Cup was Virat Kohli’s return to form. He smiled after 1021 days as he finally ended his drought by hammering a memorable century against Afghanistan in Dubai. He had last hit a century before Dubai in 2019.
The T20 World Cup once again remained a poor hunting ground for the Men in Blue despite putting up a strong show in the initial rounds of the tournament. India lost to England in the semi-final clash to crash out of the tournament. England beat Pakistan in the final match to win the iconic tournament for the second time in the history of the game.
Rise of skipper Hardik Pandya and Gujarat Titans’ IPL glory: This year Indian Premier League saw the participation of a new team- Gujarat Titans. Just like a Bollywood masala movie that leaves filmgoers amazed with its twisted and high-octane turns, skipper Hardik Pandya left his fans elated when he led the squad to win their first title in IPL debut. Pandya also led the Indian team in Ireland and then in New Zealand with success, giving hopes that the nation might soon be getting a phenomenal white ball skipper in the upcoming years. Pandya also played some sizzling knocks in the Asia Cup and then the T20 World Cup.
Sourav Ganguly’s ‘dadagiri’ ends in BCCI: Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly’s stint as BCCI chief ended in a quite unceremonious way in October 2022. Some reports claimed Ganguly was offered the chairman’s position in the hugely popular, cash-rich domestic T20 tournament, Indian Premier League (IPL) but he “politely declined” the offer.
The cricket great, who shaped Team India as a captain, wanted to continue as the BCCI president, reports said. He was replaced by 1983 World Cup champion team’s member Roger Binny.
Women’s cricket team falls short of winning Gold at CWG: Cricket finally returned to the Commonwealth Games this year and India successfully reached the final of the event. However, India’s women’s team failed to deliver the final punch and Australia beat them to clinch the gold medal. India settled for silver. Interestingly, cricket featured for the second time in the Commonwealth Games and the women cricketers featured in it for the first time.
BCCI Equal Pay: BCCI created history this year when the board announced women and men will be getting the same match fee. Following the decision, the board will be getting INR 15 lakhs for the Test, INR 6 lakhs for ODI, and INR 3 lakhs for the T20I.
Dominating Events in World Sports:
Rafael Nadal creates a golden page in history: Spanish Tennis star Rafael Nadal won the 14th French Open title as he became the first player in the Open era to win 22 Grand Slam men’s titles.
Roger Federer says ‘GoodBye’: Roger Federer, who is considered as one of the top names in the history of Tennis, retired from the game in September. In his 24 years career, Roger had won 20 Major Grand Slam titles. In his last professional game, which the world will remember forever, Federer exited with a loss in doubles alongside his longtime rival Rafael Nadal for Team Europe in the Laver Cup against France’s Tiafoe and Jack Sock of Team World.
Argentina and Messi win the world: The World Cup was held in Qatar this year with Lionel Messi and his spirited Argentina defeating existing champions France to lift the iconic title. With seven goals and three assists, Messi was successful in winning the Golden Ball. He also shattered records to become the most capped World Cup player with 26 appearances in the grand football event.
However, it was a sad moment for Portugal fans as their hero Christiano Ronaldo’s dream of lifting the title remained unfulfilled after his side was shown the exit door following a quarter-final defeat at the hands of Morocco. Brazil also failed to go beyond the quarter-finals of the major sporting event of the year.
Mbappe the superstar: However, another superstar of world football was born in Qatar. It is Mbappe of France. Mbappe became only the second player in history to garner a hat-trick in a World Cup final. He became the outright top goal scorer in a World Cup final, netting four goals in all. Mbappe won the Golden Boot for being the top-scorer of the event with eight goals in total. Gifted with the skills of exceptional speed, finishing, and dribbling, he is now considered one of the best players in the world.
RIP Shane Warne, and Andrew Symonds: The cricketing world was left shocked on Mar 4 when Australian cricket legend Shane Warne passed away in Thailand. An autopsy found that Warne had died due to natural causes.
As the world was slowly trying to recover from Warne’s death, another bad news emerged – World Cup-winning Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds died on May 14 in a car crash.
Image credits: Mirabai Chanu Twitter page/SAI Media Twitter page/BCCI Twitter page/ Natasa Stankovic Twitter page/Avishek Mitra/BCCI Women Twitter page/Wallpaper Cave/UNI/Xinhua/UNI
