10 of the saddest moments in the history of Indian sports

A TV grab of Sachin Tendulkar bending low to touch the Wankhede Stadium wicket as a mark of his respect and gratitude to the 22-yards where his journey in First-Class started and ended.

An entire nation mourned as Sachin Tendulkar left the greatest arena for one final time. Abhishek Mukherjee recalls the saddest days in the history of Indian sport.

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“In general we think of a generation being about 25 years — from the birth of a parent to the birth of a child. We also generally accept that the length of a generation in earlier periods of history was closer to 20 years when humans mated younger and life expectancies were shorter.” — ancestry.com
That was what the fans had lost today. A generation’s worth of cricket. That is the extent of void the world will have to live from today. It did not happen when Sunil Gavaskar, because Kapil Dev was still around; and when Kapil quit Sachin Tendulkar had been playing cricket for quite some time.

And then, when everything was over, Sachin Tendulkar walked out to the centre. He bent down and touched the 22 yards of brown that had meant the world to him for three decades; and he never turned back. The broad brim of the hat could not hide his emotions; the tears were infectious; it made a nation cry with him.

The exit of Sachin Tendulkar is not merely the exit of a cricketer. Tendulkar was a national treasure; a jewel in India’s sporting crown and above all, someone who impacted our every day’s life like few in the world of sports — past or present — have. He was a national icon, a paragon of everything virtuous that every parent liked to see in their child. In that sense, Sachin Tendulkar’s exit had a funereal touch — a sense of loss that hit millions of moist-eyed Indians around the world.

Here are 10 of the saddest moments in India’s sporting history:

1. Missing the bronze in football at the Melbourne Olympics, 1956

It is hard to believe that India were a decent football team in the 1950s. They even qualified by default for the 1950 World Cup and had been placed in Group C along with Italy, Paraguay, and Sweden. However, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) decided to spoil the party by declining to send a team to Brazil.

An article in Sports Illustrated later mentioned the incident: “Following a meeting, a cryptic press release said India was backing out of the World Cup. The reasons cited were disagreements over team selection, and insufficient practice time.” Kaushik Bandyopadhyay, Associate Editor of Soccer and Society, added: “A careful study reveals that beneath the apparent financial difficulties given as cause of withdrawal lay the AIFF’s unusual failure to appreciate the importance of participating in the World Cup, despite assurances from the organising committee to bear a major part of the tour expenses.”

Note: Contrary to popular beliefs, playing barefoot was not against the rules; it is often stated that India had opted out of the World Cup because shoes were mandatory.

Coming to the Melbourne Olympics, India managed to get a walkover in the first round as Hungary had pulled out. They clashed against the hosts, Australia, in the quarter-final. Neville D’Souza gave India the lead in the ninth minute but Bruce Morrow equalised in the 17th. D’Souza scored again in the 33rd, but Morrow struck again in the 41st.

At 2-2, India went up again when D’Souza scored his hat-trick in the 50th minute. Australia kept on attacking, but the Indian defence seemed impregnable. Then Krishna Kittu pulled one through in the 80th minute, sealing the match by an emphatic 4-2 margin.

Hopes were raised as India reached the semi-final. The opposition was Yugoslavia, who had thrashed them in the 1952 Olympics at Helsinki by a 10-1 margin (India had played barefoot). This time, too, D’Souza gave India the lead in the 52nd minute after a tight goalless first half.

Then things turned around completely: Zlatko Papec equalised two minutes later, and three minutes after that Todor Veselinovic gave Yugoslavia the lead. Papec drove in his second goal in the 65th minute, and the final blow came when Muhamed Abdus Salam scored an own goal.

There was still the match for the bronze medal, though. Here India were thrashed 0-3 by Bulgaria as Todor Diev scored twice and Dimitar Milanov once. India’s dreams of winning a medal in Association Football came to a crashing end.

2. Milkha Singh missing bronze at the Rome Olympics, 1960

If one ignores hockey, medals at the Olympics have always been hard to come by for Indians. With two major gold medals under his belt from the 1958 Commonwealth Games at Cardiff and the 1958 Asian Games at Tokyo, Milkha Singh had entered the 1960 Olympics as a favourite for the 400 metres event.

The expectations went up manifolds when Milkha made it to the finals. He led by a significant margin but slowed down at around the 250-metre mark with the intention to conserve energy for the end. It turned out to be a blunder: he eventually ended up fourth.

What was even more heartbreaking was the fact that Milkha had clocked 45.73 seconds, which meant that he had broken the national record. It stood for 40 years. The medals went to Otis Davis of USA (gold, 45.07 seconds, won in a photo-finish), Carl Kaufmann of Germany (silver, 45.08 seconds), and Malcolm Spence of South Africa (bronze, 45.60 seconds).

Note: Contrary to popular beliefs, Milkha Singh did not break the world record in the final. A new world record had already been established in the semi-final heats when Davis had clocked 45.62 seconds. Though Davis, Kaufmann, and Spence all went past this mark in the final, Milkha did not.

3. Vijay Amritraj losing to Jimmy Connors, Wimbledon 1981

It is difficult to choose a single encounter from the many heartbreaks of Vijay Amritraj. In Wimbledon 1973, he had lost in a five-set tie against the eventual champion Jan Kodes, and later that year he defeated the legendary Rod Laver, but crashed out against Ken Rosewall two rounds later. Even in 1979, he had gone up 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 against Bjorn Borg but ended up losing the last two sets. However, the biggest disappointment possibly came in Wimbledon, 1981.

Vijay Amritraj lost many close encounters with top-ranked players © Getty Images

The unseeded Amritraj blew away Kodes in the first match, winning in straight sets (6-0, 6-1, 7-5); he was down two sets to one against Brian Teacher in the next round but eventually proceeded to win 6-4, 2-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. Tim Wilkinson was duly sent packing (6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4), as was Paul Kronk (6-3, 6-3, 6-2).

Only three matches stood between Amritraj and the title as he took on third-seed Jimmy Connors in the quarter-final. He started brilliantly, winning the first two sets 6-2, 7-5. However, as the match went on, Connors outdid him in stamina, and won the final three sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, knocking the Indian out of the tournament.

4. PT Usha missing bronze at the Los Angeles Olympics, 1984

The 400-metre hurdles for women were introduced at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. As expected, PT Usha (whose full name, as we have all correctly answered in numerous quizzes, was Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha). After topping the heats, she was one of the favourites for the final (it also made her the first Indian woman to participate in the final of an Olympics event).

Usha clocked 55.42 seconds, which still remains the national record, but unfortunately came fourth. The third place went to Cristieana Cojocaru of Romania, who had reached the mark in 55.41 seconds — a hundredth of a second before Usha. The gold medal went to Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco (54.61) while Judi Brown of USA (55.20) claimed the silver medal.

5. The murder of Syed Modi, 1988

Syed Modi had succeeded Prakash Padukone as the winner of the National Badminton Championship and went on to clinch the title eight times in a row from 1980 to 1987; he had also won the gold in Men’s Badminton in the Commonwealth Games in 1984 at Brisbane. He married a fellow badminton player called Amita, with whom he had a daughter in May 1988.

Syed Modi won the Indian National Badminton Championship eight times in-a-row.

On July 28, 1988, Modi was shot dead as he was coming out of the KD Singh Babu Stadium in Lucknow. The accused included Amita herself, along with her future husband Sanjay Singh (then an Uttar Pradesh Minister), Akhilesh Singh (politician), and the latter’s henchmen Bhagwati Singh, Jitendra Singh, Amar Bahadur Singh, and Balai Singh.

Amita, Sanjay, and Akhilesh were charge-sheeted for conspiracy and were all acquitted. Of the other four (all of whom were accused for the execution of the murder) Jitendra was set free, and both Amar Bahadur and Balai passed away before the verdict came out in as late as 2009. Bhagwati was the only one who was sentenced to life imprisonment.

6. Dhruv Pandove’s death, 1992

Dhruv (alternatively Dhruva or Dhruve) Pandove had made his First-Class debut at 13, and at 17 years 341 days he became the youngest man to score a thousand runs in Ranji Trophy. His first First-Class hundred — 137 against Jammu and Kashmir at Srinagar — had come at an age of 14.

His second hundred had come against Railways Services a few days before his 18th birthday. It was exactly 22 days after the birthday that Pandove took a taxi from Ambala to his home in Patiala. The recklessness of the driver resulted in an accident, and a young Indian talent was nipped in the bud.

7. Raman Lamba’s death, 1998

Raman Lamba suffered an internal hemorrhage and went into a coma after being hit by a ball on the forehead during a cricket match.

Raman Lamba’s finger injury had gone a long way in shaping Indian cricket in the 1990s. Mohammad Azharuddin was never in contention for the first Test in Pakistan in 1989-90 (where, incidentally, Tendulkar had made his debut). However, Lamba pulled out due to an injury. Azharuddin was recalled, and four Tests later he had gone out to toss in the national blazer.

Lamba had started playing club cricket in Bangladesh since 1991. His success earned him the title Don of Dhaka. He had turned up for Abahani Krira Chakra in February 1998 for the local derby against Mohammedan Sporting Club at the Bangabandhu Stadium.

There were three balls left in Saifullah Khan’s over. Khaled Mashud, the captain, wanted Lamba to field at forward short-leg for the rest of the over. He even asked whether Lamba needed a helmet, which the Delhi-ite refused. As things turned out, Mehrab Hossain pulled the ball with all the force he could muster: the ball hit Lamba’s forehead so hard that it ricocheted to Mashud’s gloves.

He fell down, but assured his teammates that he was fine. Soon after he reached the dressing-room, he mentioned that he was unwell. He was taken to Post Graduate Hospital, Dhaka. It was revealed that he had suffered an internal haemorrhage and went into a coma. A neurosurgeon was flown in from Delhi but he could not make it on time. He passed away on February 23. In his memory, Vijay Lokapally wrote in The Hindu: “He always dressed young, thought young and played young. Alas, he died young.”

The incident affected Mehrab the most: the guilt hit him so hard that he had to spend several sleepless nights following the incident. It took him many, many days to recover from the shock.

8. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi missing bronze at the Athens Olympics, 2004

‘Lee-Hesh’ had entered the tournament as the fifth seed in Men’s Doubles Tennis. Arguably the greatest men’s doubles pair in Indian history, they were one of the favourites for the tournament.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi began well by defeating Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick of USA by a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 margin in the first round; Yves Allegro and Roger Federer of Switzerland went down next, 6-2, 7-6 (9-7); and in the quarter-finals, they went past Wayne Black and Kevin Ulyett by a 6-4, 6-4 margin.

Leander Paes (extreme right) and Mahesh Bhupathi missed out on a glorious chance to win a medal for India in Tennis during the 2004 Athens Olympics © Getty Images

Having reached the semi-final without losing a set, Paes and Bhupathi were eventually defeated by Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuttler of Germany in straight sets (2-6, 3-6). The nation counted on the pair for a bronze, and the battle for the coveted medal went down to the wire.

They lost the first set against Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia by a 6-7 (5-7) margin but came back strongly, winning the second set 6-4. The third set continued for a long period of time before the Indians lost 14-16.

9. Being knocked out first round in the cricket World Cup, 2007

Having been runners-up the previous time, Rahul Dravid’s India were among the favourites for the World Cup in West Indies. As per the rules of the tournament, two teams would go onto the Super Eights from every group; India were pitted against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Bermuda in Group B.

Unfortunately, disaster struck in the first match; some outstanding swing bowling from Mashrafe Mortaza reduced India to 72 for four, and though both Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh scored fifties, India collapsed from 157 for four to 159 for nine. Some unusual batting from Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel finally took them to 191: they could not bat out the 50 overs.

Whatever hope was there for India went out of the window when Tamim Iqbal hit Zaheer for an outrageous six, shattering the hopes of the Indian supporters very early in his innings. Mushfiqur Rahim remained unbeaten with 56, and with both Tamim and Shakib Al Hasan scoring fifties, Bangladesh won by five wickets with nine balls to spare.

India struck back, scoring a World Cup record of 413 for five against Bermuda and winning by 257 runs. However, they failed to chase 255 in the all-important match against Sri Lanka as Muttiah Muralitharan’s guile guided his side to a 69-run victory. There was still a glimmer of hope left, but with Bangladesh defeating Bermuda, India failed to go past the first round for the first time since 1992.

10. Failing to qualify for field hockey at the Beijing Olympics, 2008

India made their appearance in field hockey for the first time in 1928; they won the gold medal six times in-a-row, and though had to be satisfied only with silver at Rome in 1960, they won the gold back at Tokyo in 1964. The decline started after that, and though they won the gold at Moscow in 1980, they did not manage a subsequent medal.

Not to be able to qualify was of the question, though. They had qualified for every Olympics since their appearance in 1928. Nobody had expected them to be knocked out before that. The Indian forwards played well, keeping the pressure on, but it was Great Britain who struck in the final of Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2 at Santiago.

Barry Middleton scored in the fourth minute and Richard Mantell increased the lead in the 10th. India’s penalty-corner specialists — Ramachandra Raghunath and Dilip Tirkey — could not capitalise on the five penalty-corners. As India got more and more desperate to break through, Sardara Singh and Prabhjot Singh were shown yellow cards.

Eventually India were knocked out by the same 0-2 margin. Field hockey at the Beijing Olympics went ahead without the eight-time champion nation.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is a cricket historian and Senior Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He generally looks upon life as a journey involving two components – cricket and literature – though not as disjoint elements. A passionate follower of the history of the sport with an insatiable appetite for trivia and anecdotes, he has also a steady love affair with the incredible assortment of numbers that cricket has to offer. He also thinks he can bowl decent leg-breaks in street cricket, and blogs at https://ovshake.blogspot.in. He can be followed on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/ovshake42)