Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, not much sporting activities happened in the year 2020 due to the scare of the virus. But the year 2021 saw a big turnaround in this case and just like ever before, we saw sporting activities resume normally all over the globe to entertain the fans. The year 2021 has been quite a mixed bag when it comes to buzz in the world of sports. While some made headlines for their big achievements, the others hogged the limelight for all sorts of controversial reasons. Here’s taking a quick look back at the major happenings in sports in the 2021.
Virat Kohli Vs BCCI: Perhaps the biggest controversy that surrounded cricket this year was of Virat Kohli’s controversial sacking from ODI captaincy by Sourav Ganguly and his BCCI. The differences in opinion was pretty much out in the open when Ganguly and Kohli in their respective press conversations cleared the fact that they were not on the same page. While Virat maintained that he was informed about sacking as ODI captain 1.5 hours before South Africa Test squad selection, Ganguly said that he had earlier requested Kohli personally to not give up captaincy, a claim Kohli refused later.
Neeraj Chopra’s Gold Medal Win: Neeraj Chopra became the ‘man of the moment’ immediately after his heroics at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The man brought glory to the country at an International level after he won a gold medal at the Olympics this year. This was India’s first-ever gold medal in the Olympics and he certainly worked hard to achieve it for the country. One of the biggest highlights of Indian sports this year.
Tim Paine ‘Sexting’ Scandal: Former Australian Test skipper Tim Paine has got the reputation of a serious ‘talker’, as he always seems to be chirping behind the stumps, saying something or the other. But this time, more than his on-field conversation, it was his off-the-field conversation that got him in trouble. He was accused of cheating his wife as his sexual, lewd messages with another lady came out in the open. Immediately after the leak, he resigned from Australian captaincy citing that his actions don’t come at par with the ‘standards’ of an Australian captain. He is currently on a mental health break.
Covid-19 Bio Bubble Breach In IPL: The IPL 2021 was happening in the country around April, a time when the second wave of Covid-19 was at its peak in India. Despite the criticism from all over the world, the IPL tournament went on until a bio-bubble breach due to which players of all franchises were put immediately at risk. This resulted in IPL being conducted in two separate phases for the first-time ever. The second phase happened in the UAE around September-October 2021.
Naomi Osaka’s Refusal To Attend Press Conferences At French Open 2021: Japanese Tennis sensation Naomi Osaka found herself in the news for all the wrong reasons after having purposely attempted to stay ‘away’ from news. As funny as it may sound, that’s the reality. Naomi ended up creating controversy after she refused to do press conferences during the French Open tournament in 2021. This led to her being fined a whopping $15,000. The reason she gave was that she wanted to protect her mental health from negativity. She’s currently on a ‘mental health’ break and is expected to resume her game soon.
Chinese Tennis Player Peng Shuai’s Disappearance: This is perhaps the most curious case of 2021 that is still a mystery yet to be unraveled. As per reports in Sky News and other global media platforms, Peng Shuai had made a sexual assault claim post which she mysteriously vanished from public appearance for weeks. While panic emerged globally as to whether she unfortunately caused any harm to herself due to the apparent trauma that she faced, soon all that came to an end when she came back in front of public and mentioned that she was just on a break and all’s fine at her end. The biggest surprise? A few days back, she even denied the claims of ever having made a sexual assault claim thereby leaving everyone confused. What’s really happening? Yeah, we all have the same question. Just no answers as of now.
Quinton De Kock’s Refusal To Take The Knee: South Africa’s Quinton De Lock made it in the headlines this year for apparently not being in support of ‘black lives’. Racism is no alien concept globally and ‘take the knee’ was a gesture that every cricket team followed during the recently-held ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in order to show their solidarity and support for the BLM movement. Although Quinton distanced himself away from the same initially, he later on issued an apology in public and took the same in his next game without any hassle. Quite an unnecessary hype, we feel.
Online Attack Against Mohammad Shami after loss against Pakistan in T20 World Cup: This was perhaps the most shameful incident that India as a country had to see recently. Cricket is that one game that brings all talented individuals across different religions and beliefs together. But the same belief system of Mohammad Shami was questioned by trolls on social media after India’s loss to Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Shami had an off-day for which he leaked many runs against Pakistan and after the loss, some fans accused him of purposely underplaying his abilities in order to help Pakistan win the game. All we can say is that one simply can’t stoop lower than this.
Manika Batra’s Match Fixing Allegations Against Coach: One news that made it to the headlines for a fairly long time after the Tokyo Olympics 2020 was Manika Batra’s match-fixing allegations against her coach. Manika had alleged that her coach Soumyadeep had reportedly asked her to fix matches in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifiers. There were multiple discussions that happened after the allegations. However, there’s nothing proven on this yet. Wrestler Sushil Kumar’s Murder Case: This is perhaps the most shocking as well as saddest turn of events in 2021. The man who brought glory to the country at the Olympics earlier became a ‘zero’ from ‘hero’ in no time when he was put behind bars for his alleged role in the murder case of a young wrestler at Chhatrasal. What’s even worse is a sporting hero like him was on the run to evade arrest after the case got public attention. He’s currently serving his term in prison.
New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel’s 10 wicket feat in Test match against India: New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel has always been a fantastic young spinner whose talent could be used to good effect in sub-continent conditions. But with his latest feat, he seems to have outdone his own potential. The Indian-origin Kiwi spinner became the third bowler in the history of Test cricket to take all 10 wickets in a single innings. Before him, only Jim Laker and Anil Kumble have managed to achieve this feat. The achievement stunned the world of cricket and it will certainly be remembered and celebrated for a very long time.
Lionel Messi And Cristiano Ronaldo Sign New Club Contracts: Both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are absolute legends of the game and whenever we talk about club football and these two stalwarts, we have always associated them with the likes of Barcelona FC and Real Madrid. However, year 202 brought a change in both their lives as they moved ahead with different teams. While Messi signed a contract with PSG (Paris Saint-Germain, Ronaldo returned to Manchester United after several years thereby making all Man-United fans super happy.
With an exciting year for the sports fraternity gone by, it will be interesting to see how things unfold in 2022.
