2009: A rollercoaster year for Indian sports

Saina Nehwal broke the Chinese stronghold in badminton, Vijender Singh pushed the boxing envelope further while Pankaj Advani became billiard's babyface world champion but everything paled in comparison as a cricket-crazy nation celebrated India's rise as the number one Test playing team with unbridled verve and brio.
    
Elsewhere, old war horses Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi proved still enough competitiveness was left in their ageing bodies, Somdev Devvarman emerged as the next best thing in Indian tennis, Force India's rags-to-riches story warmed the cockles of many hearts, while Indian golf witnessed the rise of Gaganjeet Bhullar and C Muniyappa.
    
On the other side of the ledger, the lifters continued to disgrace the country, hockey languished in turmoil, athletes
toiled in obscurity and Delhi's preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
    
Cricket remained the passion and religion of the Indian populace which lapped up all three formats of the game.
    
It turned out to be quite an eventful year for Indian cricket with the Indian Premier League proving to be a gold-rush which drew players in droves while the cult of Sachin Tendulkar completed two illustrious decades.
   
But the highlight of the year definitely was India's emergence as the number one Test team after Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his teammates beat Sri Lanka at home.