2015: Non-Stop Sporting Action!

The problem with writing a sports year-ender is that no matter how much you delay it, there's a chance that you'll eventually miss-out on something. I have dished out several year-enders over the past 8-10 years, but I do not remember an instance where I have felt entirely satisfied with how much I was able to cover. And yet you cannot really blame me for that because, in all honesty, to capture even the major sporting events from across the globe in a few words is like squeezing an Argentinosaurus into a rabbit-hole. For the Jurassic period fans, Argentinosaurus was the world’s largest land animal ever, but an average sports aficionado will tell you that this is far from the greatest creature associated with the South American country.

          The little magician from Argentina that goes by the name of Lionel Messi is on the cusp of recapturing the Ballon D'Or from his old rival Cristiano Ronaldo. Brazilian superstar Neymar completes the shortlist of the candidates for the prestigious title, which will be announced at the FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala in Zurich on January 11, 2016.

That Spell... Downunder
The standout cricket event of the year 2015 was the Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand in February and March.
      The last time the mega event graced these two countries (1992), the trophy went to Imran Khan's Cornered Tigers. So, as superstitious as we are as a nation, we deemed it given that this was meant to be a repeat of the 1992 event. Cricket fans in Pakistan were searching for similarities between the two tournaments and none was as startling and pleasing for cricket lovers as the fact that it was Imran Khan Niazi back then and Misbah-ul-Haq Niazi now!

However, in reality, this team was far inferior to the one they were being compared with. In fact, to put it correctly, the batting methods and strategies that the current ODI team employs on the field are outdated, defensive and much suited to the 80s.
       On the one hand were teams like South Africa and Australia, which were strolling past 400, and on the other team Pakistan was struggling to even cross 250. Like always, it was down to the bowlers to bail the team out; they did that in style with Wahab Riaz leading from the front.
        Pakistan lost their opening fixture to India and then lost to the West Indies as well. They were looking straight down the gun barrel after that defeat as beating the rest of the opponents – that included AB de Villiers' South Africa – wasn't child's play. But, Wahab and Irfan had other plans. The pitches in Australia and New Zealand traditionally support genuine pace bowlers and the Pakistani frontmen took full advantage of that by winning the rest of their matches including a thrilling low scoring encounter with the mighty Proteas.
        The nation was beginning to believe as it looked like 1992 all over again when Khan's team staged a miraculous scape en route to their maiden world title, but, due to their position in the group, they had to pit their wits against the Aussies in the knockout phase this time around!
         This game provided the perfect synopsis of Pakistan Cricket's ODI history: irresponsible batting, outstanding bowling and pathetic fielding. The batting lineup was no match to the Australian pace bowlers Mitchell Starc -- who ended up as the tournament's leading wicket taker (22) along with Trent Boult of New Zealand -- and Josh Hazlewood

It was all down to the bowlers to defend a paltry total of 213. It was a daunting task, more so due to the absence of the giant Irfan. Wahab Riaz had to bear the burden on his shoulders along with Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali and young Ehsan Adil. Sohail Khan removed Finch early but the dangerous David Warner was still there when Wahab Riaz was introduced.

          What followed was one of the most memorable spells of fast bowling ever witnessed in ODIs. Wahab reminded cricket fans of Wasim Akram's famous spell from the World Cup final in 1992. Giving the Aussies a dose of their own medicine, the left arm fast bowler produced a barrage of unplayable deliveries to the finest of batsmen. Warner and Clarke succumbed to sharp short-pitched deliveries flung at them from 22 yards away; Watson's bat looked like a chopstick trying desperately to make any connection with the missiles aimed at him. But, when Wahab's moment came, Rahat Ali made a mess of all the hard work of his fellow paceman and dropped Shane Watson with the hosts still 134 runs away from victory. Later, Glenn Maxwell was dropped by Sohail Khan off Riaz's bowling. There's so much a bowler can do, but this is nothing new for our bowlers as they have never been supported by the fielders, never!

Rahat Ali will go down in my book as the man who handed the Aussies the World Cup on a silver platter. Eventually, Irfan’s absence was felt and Pakistan was knocked out of the World Cup again. Australia claimed an unprecedented 5th World Cup on the back of some fine performances from their bowlers. Starc was named player of the series; there were some tremendous individual performances like the double hundreds from Chris Gayle and Martin Guptill, AB de Villiers' blitz against the Windies, Tim Southee's 7 wickets versus England and Mitch Starc's 6-28 in the match of the tournament between Australia and New Zealand that the latter won by a solitary wicket.

          However, 2015 was a good year for the national Test team. They had successful tours of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka besides emerging victorious by a 2-0 margin in the three match series against England in the UAE.

Following the retirement of Misbah-ul-Haq from ODIs – under whose captaincy they were beaten by New Zealand in New Zealand before the World Cup – Azhar Ali was named as the captain of the One Day team and his tenure has so far reaped mixed results. Getting humiliated first at the hands of Bangladesh, Pakistan trounced Zimbabwe in a landmark series as the African nation became the first Test playing country to visit Pakistan in 6 long years. They upset the Sri Lankan team on their home turf and later trumped the Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe. In doing so, they ensured their qualification for the 2017 Champions Trophy. In the last ODI series of the year Pakistan were convincingly beaten by England.

          T20 team, led by Afridi, was whitewashed by England in UAE and were beaten by Bangladesh earlier in the year. In between, they swept aside the Zimbabweans twice, home and away, and the Sri Lankans 2-0. England claimed the Ashes Series this year by beating the touring Australians 3-2. Steven Smith, the Australian Captain was named as the Cricketer of the Year by ICC.

The Aces
In Tennis, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams dominated the singles events, claiming three Grand Slams each. Djokovic came up against Swiss opponents three times, beating Federer twice and losing to Stan Wawrinka in the French Open final. In the Australian Open, Britain's Andy Murray was the runner up.

Serena Williams was knocked out in the semifinals of the US Open after having won the first three Grand Slams of the year quite convincingly and taking her Grand Slam singles titles tally to a staggering 21.

Own Goal
The less you discuss the state of affairs of the national game here the better. There's nothing significant to write about hockey. The national team couldn't qualify for any major event this year. It pains me to say that once a powerhouse in the game, Pakistan hockey is as good as finished unless a major surgery takes place to enhance the game's status in the country. In other words, hockey in Pakistan, just like in this article, has been devoured alive by cricket.

The King of Games
       Well, if the hint wasn't good enough, this section is about football. And due to the contrast between the enormity of the subject and the scarcity of space available, we'll skim through the football scene in 2015 akin to Lionel Messi on a football pitch.

Overall, 2015 was not a very good year for the reputation of the game as two of the most powerful men in football, Fifa president Sepp Blatter and Uefa boss, Michel Platini, were suspended for eight years from all football-related activities following an ethics investigation.

Meanwhile on the pitch, where it really matters, it remained quite eventful as Cristiano Ronaldo won the FIFA Ballon d'Or as the World Player of the Year for a second consecutive time.

Ivory Coast, Australia, Mexico and Chile became champions of Africa, Asia, North America and South America respectively. The Women's World Cup was held in Canada and was won by the United States, who beat Japan in the final.

European club football was dominated by Spanish teams; Luis Enrique's Barcelona swept aside everything in their sight to claim the Champions League title while Sevilla won the Europa League. The two teams met in the UEFA Super Cup clash on August 11, where Barca overcame Sevilla by 5-4 in a thrilling encounter.

Earlier this year Barcelona became the champions of Spain for the 23rd time. In England Jose Mourinho's Chelsea claimed their first Premier League title since 2009-10. Surprisingly, rather almost unimaginably, Chelsea faltered criminally in their title defense this season and, as a result, the self-proclaimed Special One (Mourinho) was sacked in December.

Thanks to a lucrative TV deal, buying power of all clubs in the English Premier League has improved massively. Consequentially, the smaller teams have put pressure on the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City. Leicester City currently leads the League table and the pressure on coaches like Louis Van Gaal (Man Utd) and Pellegrini (Man City) is greater than ever before. Brendan Rodgers lost his job at Liverpool and was replaced by Jurgen Klopp. Later, Mourinho was shown the door at Stamford Bridge. Pep Guardiola, whose Bayern Munich side claimed the Bundesliga, has decided to leave the Bavarian Giants at the end of the season and is expected to be coaching in England next season.

          Rafael Benitez replaced Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid in June, and the latter was in December named as the successor to Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich. Ancelotti will occupy the Bayern hot seat from the start of the next season.

On Your Mark, Set, Bolt!
The 15th World Championships in Athletics were held in China from August 22-30. Kenya topped the charts with 7 golds and was followed by the US.
        Usain Bolt claimed the 100m and 200m titles, but it wasn't as easy as his previous 'stroll at the Bird's Nest' in 2008 summer Olympics; America's Justin Gatlin came second. The Jamaicans also claimed the 4x100m relay titles in both categories (Men and Women). Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands was the surprise package of the Championships, coming second behind Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the 100m and beating Elaine Thompson and Veronica Campbell-Brown in 200m to claim gold.

The Fight of the Century
On May 02, 2015 MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas witnessed one of the greatest sporting spectacles of this century when undefeated five division world champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr, came face to face with the Pac-Man, Manny Pacquiao. A fight that took half a decade in the making was won by Mayweather via 12-round unanimous decision.

Mayweather nicknamed "Money", pocketed an estimated $180 million, poor Pac-Man only earned $120m. In the list of the world's highest-paid celebrities in 2015 – we are not talking about just sports here – Forbes has placed Mayweather at the number one spot with Pacquiao at no. 2 followed by Katy Perry and One Direc
tion! (...khelo gae kudo gae tou hogay kharab!)

The Winning Formula
Great Britain's Lewis Hamilton successfully defended his Drivers' Championship after accumulating 381 points during the 2015 Formula 1 season.
Mercedes clinched the Constructors' title with 703 points followed by Ferrari at 428.

What's next!
If you thought 2015 was a busy year in sports, how I wish I could write LOL here, 2016 is filled with non-stop sporting action. The inaugural Pakistan Super League will be played in February, the draft for this lucrative T20 league was held in Lahore in December. Pakistan T20 captain, Shahid Afridi will be representing Peshawar Zalmi; Karachi Kings will be led by Shoaib Malik; Misbah will captain Islamabad United; Kevin Pietersen will play his trade for Quetta Gladiators; and Chris Gayle will be opening the batting for Lahore Qalandars!

The premier international cricketing event of 2016 is of course the Twenty20 World Cup to be held in India. And that's not all. 2016 is also the Olympic year and this time around Brazilian city of Rio will play host to athletes from around the world. Also, the UEFA European Championships will be held next year in France. So, if 2015 was a wonderful year for sports, 2016 will only be better!