Year 2024: Seven most talked about controversies in Indian sports world

The year 2024 was a year of achievements and controversies for the Indian sports world. While the Indian cricket team under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma won the T20 World Cup jointly hosted by West Indies and USA, D Gukesh won the title of World Champion by defeating Ding Liren of China in chess. Neeraj Chopra won the silver medal in the Paris Olympics and Manu Bhaker won two medals in shooting. But amid these achievements, many controversies also emerged in the sports world, which made headlines. Let's take a look at the seven biggest controversies of Indian sports in 2024.

1. Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification in Paris Olympics final

In 2024, the Olympic Games were organized in Paris, the capital of France, in which Indian female wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who had qualified for the final, was disqualified just before the gold medal match due to being just 100 grams overweight. After this decision, there was much debate in the whole country. However, later as per the rules, she was disqualified on the morning of the final for being just 100 grams overweight. She appealed against this decision in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), but their decision also came against Phogat, whose dream of winning a medal was completely shattered. Phogat announced her retirement from wrestling after this decision.

2. Bajrang Punia's four-year suspension:

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia has been suspended for four years by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). The action was taken because he failed to submit his sample for dope test. The panel is of the view that the athlete is liable to penalty under Article 10.3.1 and is liable to be disqualified for a period of four years," the ADDP said in its order.

3. Dispute between Igor Stimac and AIFF

This was a very difficult year for Indian football in which it could not even qualify for the FIFA World Cup to be held in the year 2026. Because of the poor performance of Team India, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) sacked head coach Igor Stimac and also terminated his contract. Stimac had criticized the AIFF and its president Kalyan Chaubey a lot after this decision. He had also approached FIFA claiming that his dues were not paid. Later, the AIFF paid the coach the outstanding amount of US$400,000.

4. Antim Panghal's return home after ignoring the rules in Paris Olympics

While the controversy of Vinesh Phogat was seen in the Paris Olympics, another Indian wrestler Antim Panghal had to return to the country for ignoring the rules. Panghal had given his official recognition card to his sister to get out of the sports village, which was completely against the rules and he had to face disciplinary action, in which she immediately left for the country.

5. Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer out of BCCI Central Contract

Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were dropped by the BCCI from its Central Contract Players List at the beginning of the year. Both of them were excluded from the central contract for not following the instructions of the BCCI, in which they were asked to play domestic cricket while being out of the Indian team. Kishan took a break from cricket for personal reasons during the South Africa tour in December, but was seen training in Baroda with Hardik Pandya. He returned to play the DY Patil T20 tournament, but did not play domestic cricket for Jharkhand. At the same time, Iyer was dropped from the Indian team during the home Test series against England and was expected to be available for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. Instead, he said he had a shoulder pain and couldn't play the match. Meanwhile, the NCA declared him fit and later both were dropped from the central contract by the BCCI.

6. Controversy between Sanjiv Goenka and KL Rahul

KL Rahul and Sanjiv Goenka came into the limelight for their on-field conversation after a match during the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League. Actually when the Lucknow Super Giants lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in a match. It was an important match for LSG, but Lucknow suffered a one-sided defeat due to the excellent batting of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma. After the match, Lucknow team captain KL Rahul was seen talking to LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka, which reportedly seemed quite awkward. At that time Goenka was seen reprimanding Rahul and the incident created a big controversy, in which many fans also criticized Sanjiv Goenka for publicly humiliating the Indian cricketer.

7. Anwar Ali-ISL Controversy:

Indian football fans were shocked when defender Anwar Ali was suspended for four months from the Indian Super League (ISL). The AIFF found Anwar guilty of breaking a four-year loan agreement with Mohun Bagan Super Giant to join East Bengal.