Digging Deeper - Faster, Higher, Stronger - A look at India's fantastic year in sports

2018 has been a good year for India in sports. We had some great results at the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games; a popular year for Indian women’s cricket (despite the fiasco over the selection of a coach); the Test performances of the men’s cricket team in South Africa and Australia as well as triumph in the Asia Cup.

The best part of these seminal moments were the performances by the stars and popular names as well as the emergence of exciting new talents on the world stage - athletes like Manu Bhaker, Manika Batra, and Prithvi Shaw as well as the upswing in the form of sportspersons like G Sathiyan, Jasprit Bumrah and Hima Das. Not to forget, the sterling performances by thoroughbreds like Mary Kom, Neeraj Chopra, Sharath Kamal and PV Sindhu.

The other thing that sets 2018 apart is the emergence of sport as a viable, even lucrative, career option in India - not just for the top flight success stories but also the middle rung athletes who are willing to push themselves in the pursuit of international glory. I don’t claim that we have turned a corner on that fully - yes, I’m aware we come across, at the least, one or two stories every month of a sportsman or sportswoman ravaged by penury after being let down by state governments and babus of various hues despite promises of being secured by, if not lavished by, state patronage.

But maybe it’s time to hit pause on that old pessimism? One does get the feeling that such stories are reducing in frequency while we see an increase in the number of professional athletes who pursue sports full time. More on that later.

Let’s look at the many bright moments in sports this year, as well as the heroes and heroines who made them happen.