A jubilant Indian field hockey team after their victory in the final of the Junior Asian Cup Hockey Tournament against Pakistan in Karachi on April 29. India beat Pakistan 5-2. (File Photo: AFP)

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May: Sania Mirza won the Regione House ITF clay tournament in Campobasso, Italy.

Anju George

June: Anju Bobby George sailed 6.83 meters in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, OR, to finish third. Viswanathan Anand drew his final round game with World No. 1 Garry Kasparov, leading the Rest of World team to a narrow victory against Armenia. IMG Academies Bharata (IMGB), a wholly owned subsidiary of IMG Academies East, unveiled a master plan to develop a world-class athletic training, education, leisure and resort complex in Hyderabad. The Olympic torch, back in India after 40 years, embarked on its relay through the Indian capital which is bidding to host the 2016 games. Mahesh Bhupathi and his Belarussian partner Max Mirnyi lost in the semifinal of the men’s doubles event of the Frenchin Paris. The Indian cricket board’s disciplinary panel probing bribery charges against Maharashtra batsman Abhijit Kale suspended him from the game till Dec. 31.

Abhijit Kale

August: Vijay Singh won PGA Championship which featured a three-way playoff, and implications for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Viswanathan Anand made it five-in-a-row at the Chess Classic of Mainz. Anand added yet another feather to his cap with a title win at the Sparkassen Chess Championships. Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won the $2.5 million ATP Tennis Masters Series doubles title in Toronto, Canada. Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup for the third time, beating four-time winners India at the R. Premadasa Stadium. The Indian hockey team beat Ireland 6-2 in the second Test at Leverkusen, Germany, to sweep the series 2-0.

Ranbir Mahendra

September: Ranbir Singh Mahendra was elected president of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI). Long jumper Anju Bobby George and 400-meter runner Manjeet Kaur won gold medals in the first Asian All Star Athletics Championship in Singapore. Women weightlifters Pratima Kumari (63 kg) and Sanamacha Chanu (53 kg), who tested positive in the recent Athens Olympic Games, and coach Pal Singh Sandhu were banned for life by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Debutants the United States, which fielded a team full of players of South Asian and Caribbean origin, bowed out of the ICC Champions Trophy. Rahul Dravid received the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Player of the Year at the inaugural International Cricket Council (ICC) Awards function. Mountaineer H.P.S. Ahluwalia headed the 15-member committee that picked the winners of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award and Dhyan Chand Award.

Rahul Dravid

October: Vijay Singh became the first player in PGA Tour history to earn more than $10 million in a single season by winning the Chrysler Championship. India swept the 13th Yoga World Cup by winning 18 medals at the latest edition held in Madrid, Spain.

Meenakshi B.R

November: Indian badminton players Bristow Markose and Meenakshi B.R won the women’s doubles final in the first-ever Asian International Satellite Ranking Badminton tournament in Islamabad. The eight-nation, 4,960-miles, India-ASEAN car rally was flagged off from Assam. Justin Rose of Britain upset Vijay Singh of the U.S. to win the $42,000 BILT Skins 2004 trophy.

Karthikeyan

Pakistan defeated India to mark the 75-year platinum jubilee celebrations of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Narain Karthikeyan concluded the World Series by Nissan season with two wins. India beat Australia in the fourth Test by 13 runs though the Aussies lifted the Border-Gavaskar trophy by winning the series 2-1, their first triumph in India since 1969.

Sachin Tendulkar

December: India crushed South Africa by eight wickets to clinch the two-Test series 1-0. The Professional World Rankings listed Viswanathan Anand as the world’s number two. Sachin Tendulkar equaled Sunil Gavaskar’s world record 34 Test centuries in the first Test against Bangladesh.

(Compiled from the pages of News India-Times by Nishant Arora)