Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar's teary-eyed farewell to the game left a nation overwhelmed, while chess wizard Viswanathan Anand broke many a heart by surrendering the world title on home turf even as the brazen chicanery of administrators embarrassed the country in more ways than one in a roller-coaster year for Indian sports.
For lovers of sports, year 2013 was nothing short of an emotional roller-coaster with a liberal dose of frustration thrown in courtesy India's continued suspension from the Olympic fold.
Adding to the embarrassment was the IPL spot-fixing scandal which led to the arrest of cricketers, including former Test pacer S Sreesanth.
The shameful episode's already disastrous impact on the game was worsened by the way it was handled by its administrators, who tried to brush things under the carpet with an internal inquiry before the Supreme Court of India intervened.
In fact, Indian sports had very few success stories to talk of this year. One among them was rising shuttler P V Sindhu.
The 18-year-old from Hyderabad took the spotlight off Saina Nehwal by becoming the first woman shuttler to clinch a medal at the World Championships -- a bronze. In contrast, Saina battled poor form and injury issues through the year to end up without a title.
Not to forget the junior women's hockey team, which also clinched a bronze in the World Cup. Led by Sushila Chanu, the girls won their first-ever World Cup medal by beating England in the third-place playoff via penalty shoot-out.
In wrestling, youngsters Amit Kumar, Bajrang and Sandeep Yadav scripted India's best ever show in the World Championship in the absence of Olympic stars in a year, during which the ancient sport successfully fought off its Olympic exclusion.
Twenty-year-old Amit, the youngest Indian wrestler to compete at London Olympics, fetched a silver in the 55kg division.
