Indifferent Strokes

BY DUSK ON New Year’s Eve, as the sun sets one final time on the year 2024, the Indian cricket team ought to have reached Sydney, the venue for the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). And the team’s captain, Rohit Sharma, would’ve checked into his suite, overlooking the Sydney Opera House and Har­bour Bridge. As he takes in the exalted view for the night’s fireworks, perhaps with a bubbly in his hand, how will Rohit remember the year gone by, one that saw his greatest highs and lows as a professional cricketer, all packed like sardines into the space of a mere 12 months?

Rohit has represented India for nearly two decades now, and has of course seen his fair share of glory and gloom, as one would in the cutthroat world of international sport. But he will be the first to admit that there has never quite been a year like 2024 in his career. It began with the hangover of the loss in the 50-over World Cup final at home, one that he and India seemed predestined to win. Then, by March, his IPL franchise Mumbai Indians, whom Rohit had led to five titles, stripped him of his leadership role. By June, however, he had won India the T20 World Cup, holding his nerve in the dregs of the final in Barbados even as South Africa marched towards a certain victory.

But in what turned out to be his last T20 game for the nation, he had become a World Cup-winning captain, only the third Indi­an to stake that claim after Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni. In any other year, that would’ve been more than enough to immortalise Rohit, and his legacy. Not in 2024, which witnessed Rohit’s Test side get blanked 0-3 to New Zealand in October, the first away team to beat India in India in the format in 12 years, putting in jeopardy India’s chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship final.

It got better, personally; and worse, professionally. The birth of his second child saw Rohit sit out of the opening match of the BGT in Perth, which his deputy, Jasprit Bumrah, oversaw India to victo­ry. When he returned as captain, in time for the Adelaide game, the team promptly lost, making it four Test match losses in a row for Rohit Sharma. So, really, how will India’s cricket captain look back at a most incredible year that is 2024? With the pride of having achieved his boyhood dream of leading India to a World Cup? Or the shame of losing control of a winning Test side and overseeing it into a losing one? Or will there be great confusion of having or­chestrated such great highs and lows, a recent World Cup-winning captain who, shockingly, finds himself the subject of immense slander in the court of public perception and opinion polls?

A night before her gold medal match, Phogat weighed 52kg and had less than 12 hours to shed 2kg. She missed by just 100 grammes, despite not eating, spending copious hours in the sauna, and even chopping her hair

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Failure is an essential part of sport. In fact, it is always one half of every story in sport. One team wins, the other loses. But over a passage of time, a long enough unit like a season or a year, great teams or individuals manage to string together enough success­ful moments to help themselves and their fans tide over the negatives on reflection. Not in 2024, though. Across international sport that India consumes, great highs were inevitably followed by greater lows, over and over again, therefore ensuring that tu­mult became the overarching theme of the calendar year. Even tennis, a sport that has long had little else written about but suc­cess stories, thanks to the seemingly never-ending era of the Big Three, wasn’t spared.

For the first time in seven years, Novak Djokovic, the undeniable greatest of all time, went without clinching a Grand Slam. Not just that, he was also trophyless on the regular tour. Which is an incredible, jaw-dropping fact, given that the Serb had come into 2024 having won three out of the four majors in not just 2023, but also in 2021; or, the kind of momentum that had seen him record not one but two three-Slam calendar years on the wrong side of his thir­ties. But what age couldn’t do to Djokovic, the young-in-years managed to do with surgical precision: stop the unstoppable in his tracks.

It was Jannik Sinner who punched in the first dent by defeat­ing the 10-time Australian Open champion in Melbourne, at a stage where he had never been vanquished before—in the semi­finals. Not since 2018 had Djokovic not won the first Slam of the year, and even as Sinner went on to claim the first of his two Grand Slam titles of 2024 (the other arriving at the US Open, which also made the Italian the new world No 1), Djokovic would go on to lose his second straight Wimbledon final to the other prodigy-on-the-block, Carlos Alcaraz, this time in straight sets.

Kane spent another year consolidating his efforts to make England great again, yet finished 2024 just as he had every other calendar in his career—without trophy for country or club

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With Djokovic finally looking (and playing) like a 37-year-old, and with the retirement of four Grand Slam champions this year in Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro and Dominic Thiem, the greatest era of tennis has all but ended, said end ushered further in with the swift rise of Sinner and Alcaraz, who split the four majors of 2024 right down the middle. They sure are the runaway superstars of a new era of dominance, but even this successful change of guard in tennis is tinged with darker hues, at least as far as Sinner is concerned.

The best tennis player in the known universe today failed two dope tests between his Slam wins, both turning up positive for Clostebol, an anabolic steroid that helps with enhancing performance. While Sinner’s team argued that he was inadver­tently contaminated with the substance by his physiotherapist (who used a mas­sage cream that contained the banned steroid), the World Anti-Doping Agency isn’t buying the explanation and has moved the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to re-investigate the case. This isn’t a good look for tennis, what with a shadow of gloom hanging over their current top-ranked player; but there was however a silver lining around the cloud that had hung over this sport’s all-time great, Djokovic. At the Paris Olympics, the 24-time Slam winner wholly put to an end the GOAT debate by clinching gold and, at long last, becoming the latest entrant into the very exclusive Golden Slam club (Olympic gold plus all four majors), a club that Roger Federer never could join.

The Paris Games is also where India saw its biggest heartbreak in 2024, when wrestler Vinesh Phogat, guaranteed at least a silver with her semifinal win in the 50kg freestyle category, was forced to return home empty-handed. On the night of August 6, a country wept happy tears knowing that Phogat, remained undefeated in her march to the final. HerfinalagainstUS’ SarahHildebrandt, who Phogathaddefeatedtwicebeforeinthepast, wastobeheldthefollow­ing evening. What chance did Hildebrandt stand when Phogat had already beaten the category’s favourite, Japan’s Yui Susaki, defend­ing Olympic gold medallist and more threateningly, one who was unbeatenpreviouslyin82professionalbouts, intheveryfirstround? But just as Indiaslept well, Phogat’s sleepless nightmare began. By the morning, those tears wouldn’t be so happy anymore.

This is what had unfolded: In any sporting discipline categorised by weight, an athlete has to weigh themselves in before the day’s event(s). The act is called “making weight”. On the day of her run into the final, Phogat made weight at 49.90kg. But human weight tends to fluctuate right through the day. A night before her gold medal match, she weighed 52kg and had less than 12 hours to shed 2kg. She missed by just 100 grammes, despite not eating, spend­ing copious hours in the sauna, and even chopping her hair. An emotionally and physically drained Phogat was hospitalised the next day, and soon after she retired from the sport, without what should’ve rightfully been a part of her legacy: an Olympic medal.

Great legacies aren’t always rewarded with silverware; just ask Harry Kane. Easily the greatest leader produced by England’s men’s football team in the new century, Kane spent another year consoli­dating his efforts to Make England Great Again (MEGA being the acronym), yet finished 2024 just as he had every other calendar in his career—without trophy for country or club. At the European Championship held this summer in Germany, Kane’s England found themselves in a second straight Euro final, this time against a young and effervescent Spain, who they lost to 1-2 in regular time.

It is an incredible thing that Kane, now 31, hasn’t won a single trophy for club or country. In search of that elusive cup, he even moved from Tottenham in London to Bayern Munich. But most ironically, the richly-decorated Munich (winners of the last 11 Bundesliga titles on the bounce before signing Kane) ended up finishing third in Germany’s top division, despite the English striker scoring the most goals across the league.

Few sportspersons on earth are as scrutinised as England’s foot­ball captain and India’s cricket captain. But the Indian will at least slip into 2025 knowing that he delivered his fans and country a World Cup trophy in the year gone by. The gleaming trophy he collected in Barbados will hopefully remain his defining memory of 2024 when Rohit looks into the rearview mirror, even if a popu­lation ostensibly seems to have forgotten all about it.

About The Author

Aditya Iyer

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