Public mood fluctuated with the fortune of the cricket team and even though old-timers rued the retirements of former captains Ganguly and Kumble, Dhoni's rise to captaincy in all three formats of the game proved a smooth transition.

Under him, India won a tri-series in Australia, thumped them at home Test series, blanked England 5-0 in ODI series and beat them 1-0 in the subsequent Test series.

Ganguly and Kumble perfectly timed their retirement and walked into sunset head held high. Comrade of many a battle, Sachin Tendulkar, however, felt some cricket was still left in him.

In a highly productive year, the little master eclipsed Brian Lara as Test cricket's most prolific run getter and became the first player to score 12,000 Test runs and then stroked a century in Chennai to script India's win against England.

It was one of those occasions when cricket scored over terrorism as the Englishmen returned to continue their tour disrupted by the Mumbai terror attacks. However a diplomatic standoff led to India cancelling its Pakistan tour.

Meanwhile, a T20 mania swept the nation off its feat and IPL proved the most radical development. The who's who of international cricket volunteered for a first-of-its-kind $43.54 million auction that saw players being bid for!

Golf also witnessed India's coming of age and Jeev Milkha Singh shone brightest in a year illuminated by some sterling shows by the Indians.

Son of a Kolkata greenskeeper, SSP Chowrasia beat the likes of Ernie Els to win the Indian Masters, Arjun Atwal lifted the Malaysian Open and did enough on the Nationwide Tour to ensure his return to the US PGA tour next year.

The season, however, belonged to Jeev, who won four titles on three different tours to open all the Major doors and the tied ninth finish in the PGA Championship has instilled enough confidence to believe that he has the game to win a Major.

After a couple of near misses in the Asian Tour, Jeev won the Bank Austria Open in Europe and the Nagashia Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup and the Golf Nippon Series JT Cup in Japan, the last came when his wife was recuperating in a Tokyo hospital after delivering a stillborn baby.

In between, Jeev lifted the USD five million Singapore Open which not only assured him of the Asian Tour Order of the Merit title but also helped him become the first player to win more than USD one million on the Asian Tour.

Chess wizard Viswanathan Anand also ensured that he finished the year with his World Championship title safe and intact.

Anand's 6.5-4.5 win against Vladimir Kramnik made him the first person to win the title in three different formats -- knockout (2000), tournament (2007) and matchplay (2008).

Following Anand's footsteps, Abhijeet Gupta and Dronavalli Harika went on to become the Under-20 boys' and girls' world champions respectively in Turkey.

Individually, shuttler Saina Nehwal missed an Olympic medal but managed to break into the top 10.

Cueist Pankaj Advani claimed eight national and international
titles, including the prestigious IBSF World Billiards Championships
in September.

It was boxing’s annus mirabilis as well as Vijender, looking more a chiselled model than a boxer, returned from Beijing with the bronze medal dangling from his neck. Akhil and Jitender fell tantalisingly short but both played their role to put India in the global boxing map.

Equally impressive was Mary Kom's feat as the mother of two returned from a two-year sabbatical to become women's world champion for an unprecedented fourth time.

Sushil Kumar demonstrated his full range of wrestling manoeuvres to bag bronze at the Beijing Games.

The last time an Indian won a medal in wrestling at the Olympics was in 1952 when K.D. Jadhav got the country’s first individual medal in at the Helsinki Olympics.

Sushil, after a gap of 56 years, became only the second Indian to follow suit.

Still, every other feat paled in comparison with the gold medal Bindra shot down in the 10m air rifle event on that memorable day of August 11.

Few expected the reticent shooter to strike gold but the ace marksman did just that to trigger a euphoria back home where a star-starved nation found a new hero in an introvert shooter.

Olympic glory eluded him but Gagan Narang nevertheless clocked up two perfect scores -- 600/600 in Germany and 400/400 in Bangkok -- against his name in the same year.

Earlier in June, Ronjan Sodhi did something similar by winning the gold at the ISSF World Cup in Belgrade, having equalled two world records in double trap.

It evoked a consternation in Manipur and north-east and the Sports Ministry had to set up a one-man commission to probe the issue. — PTI

New Delhi, December 31
The Union Government has constituted three anti-doping panels with eminent people, under the anti-doping rules, to check the menace of doping, which will come into effect from tomorrow.

An official in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports said the formation of the panels was to “create a clean and healthy environment for sports in the country”.

The three panels that have been constituted are: The Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel, Anti-Doping Appeal panel and Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee (TUEC).

Addl. district judge (retd) of Delhi Dinesh Dayal will head the nine-member Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel headed by retired additional district Judge Dinesh Dayal and the eight other members of the panel have also been drawn from the legal, medical and sports fields.

This panel will hear appeals by sportspersons charged with doping violations, and decide the quantum of punishment if found guilty.

Hockey Olympian and former national coach M P Ganesh, Asian Games gold medallist athlete Kamaljeet Sandhu and former Asian badminton champion Dinesh Khanna are members of this panel.

Retired high court Judge C K Mahajan will head the four-member Anti-Doping Appeal panel which will hear the appeals by sportspersons who have been awarded punishments by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel.

Hockey Olympian Nandi Singh and former table tennis champion Indu Puri are the two sportspersons in the panel.

The (TUEC) comprises three eminent and highly qualified medical practitioners who have expertise in the field of general medicine, pharmacology and chest diseases. They are Dr C.D Tripathi, Dr J.C Suri and Dr H.L Nag.

The TUEC would consider applications of athletes who are seeking therapeutic use exemption on the grounds of medical condition requiring use of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method.

A Sports Ministry official said the panels had been carefully selected and would have total independence in their “assessment and adjudication”.

After intensive scrutiny, the World Anti Doping Agency(WADA) gave accreditation to the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi, which is now qualified to conduct approved dope testing, which will be acceptable to all anti-doping authorities world-wide.

Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Dr M.S.Gill reiterated here today India's “full commitment to the anti-doping programme” and added that all possible measures would taken to “to rid sports of the menace of doping”.

Dr Gill said the Government had already set up the NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency) which will be the frontal organisation to deal with all matters relating to doping in sports, orientation and training of sportspersons, testing of athletes in in-competition and out of competition situations and disciplinary proceedings against erring athletes.

Melbourne, December 31
Beating the Australians in their own backyard is as good as lifting the World Cup, says South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis, who rates the Test series triumph here as the highest point of his career.

“It is up there with winning the World Cup, if not better. What better place do you want to do it? I have had some individual high moments here but ... this takes the cake, having won a Test here,” Kallis was quoted as saying by The Australian.

South Africa has sealed the three-match series after winning the first two Tests in Perth and here, humbling the Aussies at home for the first time in 16 years.

“We want to sustain that level of performance for a long period of time. We don't want to make the same mistakes and this third Test is obviously important for the rest of the summer.

“We still have three Tests to play against them at home and to win this (third) Test will obviously keep the momentum with us.” — Agencies

Melbourne, December 31
“Australian cricket dead and buried”. The headline in the ‘The Daily Telegraph’ perfectly summed up the mood.

Australia plunged into depression following the cricket team's first home series defeat in 16 years and chief selector Andrew Hilditch finds himself at the receiving end of the media wrath after the debacle against South Africa.

“The echo of the ball flying off the confident bat of South Africa’s Hashim Amla yesterday was the death rattle of Australia's record 16 years without a series loss at home.

“Analysts investigating Australia's dramatic Test cricket demise say there are no suspicious circumstances,” the writer said.

The daily also ran a mock obituary of Australian cricket which read “R.I.P.
Australian cricket slaughtered by South Africa December 30 at the MCG.
Aided and abetted by: Incompetent selectors, Inept batting, Impotent Bowling,
Dreadful Catching, Poor Captaincy.”

Explaining what ails Australian cricket, the writer said, "It simply followed a short illness complicated by player arrogance, chronic selection short-sightedness, poor captaincy decisions, unreliable batting, indecisive bowling and fielding clumsiness.

“Any obituary will say the few spasms of competitiveness Australia mustered in both Tests were brutally amputated by a cohesive South Africa, who recorded their first series victory in Australia,” he said.

Doubting Australia's number one status in ICC rankings, the report said, “Australia, propped up by statistics, are still No. 1 in world rankings. But after dismal series losses to India and South Africa, this Australian team is so lifeless it could come to the next Test in a hearse.”

In the same daily, Ben Dorries asked a blunt question -- “Who on earth selected the selectors? The head of Australian selection boss Andrew Hilditch should be on the chopping block after his shambolic handling of the side’s casualty ward and the extension of Matthew Hayden's career,” he said.

“Hilditch said last night it was not time for ‘chopping and changing’ the side. If now isn't the time, after one of the most demoralising efforts ever by an Australian side, then when is it?” he asked.

“Former selection chairman Trevor Hohns, an uncompromising man who made the tough decisions, would have had none of it.

“He was the man who famously denied Ian Healy a farewell Gabba Test, telling
the wicketkeeping great he had played three more Tests than he deserved,” he
recalled. — PTI