JANUARY
Highs
Jan. 3: East Bengal win the 31st Federation Cup, beating Lajong FC 3-0 in a tie-breaker, in Guwahati.
Jan. 14: Defending champions Mumbai win the Ranji Trophy for the 39th time.
Jan. 20: Gautam Gambhir becomes the fourth batsman to register hundreds in five consecutive Tests.
Jan. 27: India thrash Bangladesh by 10 wickets to clinch the two-match series 2-0.
Jan. 31: Leander Paes wins Australian Open mixed doubles title with Cara Black. It was his 11th Grand Slam victory.
Lows
Jan. 5: Revolt brewing in India hockey camp with players threatening to pull out over non-payment of match fees.
Jan. 6: Somdev Dev Varman loses in the second round of Chennai Open.
Jan. 13: India lose in final of the Idea Cup tri-series, to Sri Lanka.
Jan. 19: Sania Mirza bows out of the first round of the Australian Open.
Jan. 25: Rahul Dravid fractures left jaw bone after being struck by a Shahadat Hossain bouncer
FEBRUARY
Highs
Feb. 6: Wriddhiman Saha gets his maiden Test cap against South Africa.
Feb. 6: Abhinav Bindra wins gold in the 33rd InterShoot tournament in the Hague.
Feb. 7: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi win maiden title — the ATP SA Open.
Feb. 18: India retain No. 1 ranking by defeating South Africa, in the Jaypee Infratech Cup at Eden. The series ends in a 1-1 draw.
Feb. 24: Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batsman in the history of ODIs to score a double century (200 .), vs SA in Gwalior.
Lows
Feb. 10: Harbhajan Singh drops out of the top-10 bowlers’ ranking list.
Feb. 15: Sania Mirza’s career-threatening injury returns.
Feb. 20: Indian hockey rocked by controversy with organisers of a charity event claiming that the players involved had demanded Rs 5 crore to feature in the matches, an allegation the national team members denied.
Feb. 20: Ian Poulter defeats Jeev Milkha Singh in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in the US.
MARCH
Highs
March 2: Jhulan Goswami reclaimes the No. 1 spot in the ICC women’s ODI rankings for bowlers.
March 4: K
arun Chandhok (in pic) becomes the second Indian to break into F1, signs with Hispania Racing.
March 5: Manavjit Singh Sandhu clinches the trap gold at the ISSF World Cup in Acapulco, Mexico.
March 26: Sunil Chetri joins Kansas City Wizards, a MLS club.
Lows
March 3: India drop 2 spots to No. 123 in the Fifa rankings.
March 7: India bow out of the Davis Cup world group with a 2-3 loss to Russia in Moscow.
March 8: Spinner Poonam Raut reported with suspect action.
March 12: India end eighth in hockey World Cup.
March 24: Indian archers vent ire, complain of poor practice facilities.
APRIL
Highs
April 3: Saina Nehwal becomes the first Indian to get top billing in Asian Badminton Championships.
April 14: Virender Sehwag (in pic) named Wisden Cricketer of the Year for the second time in a row.
April 15: Pankaj Advani retains Asian Billiards Championship title in Indore.
April 25: Chennai Super Kings win the third edition of the IPL, defeating Mumbai Indians by 22 runs.
Lows
April 20: Virender Sehwag misses ICC World Cup T20 with a shoulder injury.
April 22: Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi admits IPL governing council is a failure.
April 25: Lalit Modi is suspended by BCCI and Chirayu Amin is appointed interim IPL chairman.
April 31: Mahindra United decide to disband their football team at the end of the season.
MAY
Highs
May 2: Suresh Raina becomes the first Indian to score an international century in T20s.
May 2: National Sports Federation limits tenure of NSF heads.
May 9: Dempo SC clinch their fourth I-League crown.
May 11: Viswanathan Anand (in pic) retains World Chess Championship.
May 16: India and Korea declared joint winners of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.
Lows
May 2: Dilip Tirkey announces retirement.
May 11: India lose to Sri Lanka by 5 wickets, ousted from World T20.
May 18: BCCI issues showcause notices to 7 India players for a brawl in a pub, in West Indies.
May 23: Somdev Dev Varman loses in the first round of the French Open.
May 31: BCCI serves 3rd showcause notice to Lalit Modi.
JUNE
Highs
June 8: Arjun Atwal qualifies for US Open.
June 11: Sourav Ganguly named captain of the Marylebone Cricket Club XI for a T20 match against Pakistan, at Lord's, on June 27.
June 24: India win Asia Cup after 15 years, defeating Sri Lanka by 81 runs in Dambulla.
June 27: Saina Nehwal wins 3rd meet on the trot, defends Indonesian Open Super Series. Earlier in the month, she won the India Open and Singapore Open.
Lows
June 1: BCCI decides not to send men’s and women’s teams for the Asian
Games.
June 5: Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy lose the French Open final.
June 5: India drop to No. 3 in the ODI ranking list.
June 27: Sourav Ganguly-led Marylebone Cricket Club XI succumb to a six-run defeat against Pakistan in a Twenty20 match at Lord’s.
JULY
Highs
July 3: Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami (in pic) top the batting and bowling charts at the ICC ODI women’s rankings.
July 4: Leander Paes and Cara Black win Wimbledon mixed doubles crown.
July 15: Saina Nehwal attains career-best ranking of world No. 2
July 30: India retain top spot in ICC Test rankings, after drawing second Test with Sri Lanka in Colombo.
Lows
July 20: Indian women's hockey team sends a written complaint alleging sexual harassment against a coaching staff.
July 21: Maharaj Kishan Kaushik quits as national women's hockey coach after being accused of sexual harassment.
July 24: IWF suspends SAI coach Ramesh Malhotra after Karnam Malleswari alleges sexual harassment by him on junior lifters.
AUGUST
Highs
Aug. 2: Somdev Dev Varman becomes the second Indian after Leander Paes, to break into the top-100 of the ATP rankings.
Aug. 2: Sachin Tendulkar becomes the most capped Test cricketer.
Aug. 5: Saina Nehwal named the 20th recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.
Aug. 22: Arjun Atwal (in pic) becomes the 1st Indian to win a US PGA Tour event by triumphing in the Wyndham Championship.
Lows
Aug. 5: Sports ministry derecognises Hockey India after 83-year-old Vidya Stokes is elected president of the national federation.
Aug. 19: Ashesh Das, a promising Tollygunge Agragami footballer, dies of dengue.
Aug. 21: Yuki Bhambri concedes the singles final to Colombian Juan Sebastian Gomez due to cramps, to settle for silver at the Youth Olympics, in Singapore.
September
Highs
Sept. 12: Sushil Kumar creates history, becomes 1st Indian to win gold at the World Championships.
Sept. 18: M.C. Mary Kom (in pic) claims a historic fifth successive World Championship title.
Sept. 19: India clinch a thrilling 3-2 win over Brazil to enter the World Group of Davis Cup.
Sept. 20: Ronjan Sodhi gets a gold at the double trap event in the ISSF World Cup.
Sept. 26: Half-centuries by Murali Vijay and Mike Hussey help the Chennai Super Kings lift the Champions League T20 with an 8-wicket victory over Warriors, in Johannesburg.
Lows
Sept. 2: Four Indian wrestlers - Rajiv Tomar (120 kg), Sumit (74 kg), Mausam Khatri (96 kg) and Gursharanpreet Kaur - dropped from the Commonwealth Games squad for failing National Anti Doping Agency (Nada) tests.
Sept. 5: Three Indian swimmers - Richa Mishra, Jyotsna Pansare and Amar Muralitharan - fails dope tests conducted by the Nada.
Sept. 10: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi lose 6-7 (5), 6-7 (4) to Bob and Mike Bryan in the US Open final.
october
Highs
Oct. 2: East Bengal beat Mohun Bagan 1-0 to retain Federation Cup in Cuttack.
Oct. 6: Sachin Tendulkar wins ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award.
Oct. 11: CWG: Krishna Poonia (in pic), Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil win gold, silver, bronze respectively in discus.
Oct. 13: India beat Australia by 7 wickets in Bangalore in second Test, win series 2-0.
Oct. 14: CWG: India end 2nd on the medal tally with 38 gold.
Oct. 24: India clinch ODI series against Australia, 1-0.
Lows
Oct. 13: CWG: Gagan Narang misses out on grabbing five gold medals. Road race walker Rani Yadav tests positive and placed under suspension.
Oct. 14: CWG: India lose hockey final to Australia 0-8.
Oct. 22: Bob Houghton accused of racial abuse.
Oct. 24: Compound archery coach Lenin Cherukuri dies in a road accident.
Oct. 26: Sunil Gavaskar denies Kochi stake claim.
Oct. 27: Kochi IPL franchise gets 30-day notice.
November
Highs
Nov. 7: Chirag United beat JCT 1-0 to win Durand Cup.
Nov. 21: Anil Kumble wins KSCA polls.
Nov. 22: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi decide to reunite after nine years.
Nov. 23: India win final Test against New Zealand, in Nagpur, to win series 1-0.
Nov. 27: Asian Games: Vijender Singh (in pic) wins gold in 75kg. India finish 6th with 14 gold.
Lows
Nov. 8: Somdev Dev Varman drops out of top-100.
Nov. 18: Asian Games: Saina Nehwal loses in quarters.
Nov. 23: Asian Games: India lose 3-4 to Malaysia in semis. Coach Harendra Singh resigns.
Nov. 25: Kochi franchise pull out of T20.
Nov. 29: Sachin Tendulkar slips to No. 2 spot in ICC Test batsmen list.
December
Highs
Dec. 11: Gagan Narang to end year as Asia’s No. 1.
Dec. 19: Sachin Tendulkar scores his 50th Test century, against SA, in Centurion.
Dec. 22: 7 Indians - Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh - shortlisted for ICC dream team.
Dec. 29: India beat SA, in Durban, to level Test series 1-1.
Lows
Dec. 8: Kolkata Knight Riders say they won’t retain Sourav Ganguly for IPL-IV.
Dec. 16: Pankaj Advani loses in final of IBSF World Snooker in Damascus.
Dec. 23: BWF pulls up Saina Nehwal for pulling out of Indian Open.
Dec. 24: India football team manager Pradeep Chowdhury deserts team after a ‘tiff’ with coach Bob Houghton.
Rest of the world over the 365 days...
• England defeated Australia by seven wickets to win the World Twenty20 in Bridgetown, in May. Craig Kieswetter (63) and Kevin Pietersen (47) starred as they put on 101 for the second wicket. It was the first time England had won a major international one-day event after losing in three World Cup finals (1979, 1987 and 1992) and the 2004 Champions Trophy.
• Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralidharan picked up his 800th Test wicket, on the last ball of his career, taking the wicket of Pragyan Ojha at the Galle Test, in July.
• Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Aamer were accused of spot-fixing in the Lord’s Test by a bookmaker, Mazhar Majeed. They were provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council thereafter and their hearings are scheduled for January 2011.
• Zulqarnain Haider fled from the Pakistan team hotel in Dubai, in the middle of a series against South Africa, for London, after receiving threats from bookmakers. He has asked for asylum in England but it is yet to be granted.
• England retained the Ashes on Australian soil for the first time in 24 years by completing an emphatic innings and 157-run win over Australia, in the fourth Test, in Melbourne. After the first Test at Brisbane ended in a draw, England won the Adelaide Test by an innings and 71 runs. Australia came back with a victory at Perth in the third Test. The final Test is in Sydney, from January 3.
• Inter Milan won the Serie A, Italian Cup and the Champions League to complete a rare treble of victories. Their Champions League victory was their first European Cup since 1965.
• Fifa awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 mega-event to Qatar. This made Russia the first eastern European country to host the Cup, while Qatar will be the first country from the Middle East to do the same.
• Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel became the Formula One world champion in the last race of the season, beating Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and teammate Mark Webber. The 23-year-old became the youngest champion after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from pole position.
• Tiger Woods, the richest sportsperson on the planet, lost his No. 1 ranking to England’s Lee Westwood after holding on to the top spot for 281 weeks. A turbulent year, Woods went through a divorce and also without a single victory.
• Australia beat defending champions Germany 2-1 after a 24-year hiatus to win the Hockey World Cup in New Delhi.
 |
• Novak Djokovic led Serbia to their maiden Davis Cup title against France. They won 3-2 at home. The team members kept a promise after their win - all of them shaved their heads on court!
