This year there have been a lot of losses to mourn in the world of sports, especially cricket. While the news of the passing of a great athlete is always met with sadness, it is also, as always, a chance to celebrate a person’s extraordinary achievements in their career and their life. Here, in particular, we remember and celebrate some of the major names who disappeared from the world of sports in 2024.
Mario Zagallo was the first and so far only one of three men to win the Men’s Football World Cup as both a player and coach. One of the most charismatic and superstitious figures in Brazilian football, he was also known for his fondness for the number 13 and his frequent use of the phrase “You have to stay with me” – lashing out at critics. He said that 13 is his lucky number because it contains the last two digits of his birth year: 1931.
Zagallo played a role in almost every major chapter of Brazil’s football history, from its first World Cup title in 1958 to the tournament being held in 2014. He was a forward for Brazil when they won the World Cup in Sweden in 1958 and Chile in 1962, and one of the first players to function as a false winger, playing between a midfielder and a striker.
Zagallo retired in 1965 and began his coaching career with Rio de Janeiro club Botafogo the following year. Named coach of the national team in 1970, just before the World Cup in Mexico, he inherited a team that included Pelé, Jairzinho, Gerson, Roberto Rivelino and Tostão. Brazil defeated Italy 4–1 in the final and became three-time champions for the first time. When Brazil won the 1994 World Cup in the United States, and again defeated Italy in the final, Zagallo was assistant coach to Carlos Alberto Parreira. Zagalo died on 5 January.
Widely regarded as the greatest defender of all time and the man who invented the libero role in defensive midfield, the death of Franz Beckenbauer brought an outpouring of tributes from almost all walks of life. Nicknamed Der Kaiser, or “The Emperor”, Beckenbauer was the second man after Zagallo to win the FIFA World Cup as a player and manager, the third being France’s Didier Deschamps. Beckenbauer was captain of the West Germany team that won the World Cup in 1974 and later led the team to the title once again as manager in 1990. He also won the European Championship with West Germany in 1972.
Beckenbauer won 104 caps for West Germany and over 400 caps for Bayern Munich. In his 13 years with the Bavarian club between 1964 and 1977, Beckenbauer was part of the Bayern team in 1973/74, 1974/75 and 1975/76 that won a hat-trick of European Cup titles, now called the UEFA Champions League. , They also won five German league titles and the same number of German Cups in 1966/67, along with one Intercontinental Cup and one European Cup Winners’ Cup.
The same year that he resigned from his position, Beckenbauer was made manager of West Germany. Despite having no prior experience as a coach, Beckenbauer led the team to consecutive World Cup finals in 1986 and 1990, winning the title in the latter year. Beckenbauer led Germany’s successful bid for the 2006 World Cup and was part of the tournament organizing committee. However, events related to this period and subsequent corruption allegations, which followed him until his death, have somewhat tarnished Beckenbauer’s legacy. He died at the age of 78.
At the time of his death, Dattajirao Gaekwad was the oldest living Indian cricketer. He played 11 Tests for India between 1952 and 1961, captaining the national team on the tour of England in 1959. India lost all five Tests and also performed poorly in first-class games, although Gaikwad himself batted courageously on the tour, scoring 1174 runs (34.52). The right-handed batsman made his debut against England at Leeds in 1952 and his last international match was against Pakistan at Chennai in 1961.
In the Ranji Trophy, Gaikwad represented Baroda from 1947 to 1961. He scored 3139 runs at an average of 47.56, which included 14 centuries. His highest score was 249 not out against Maharashtra in the 1959–60 season. He became India’s oldest living Test cricketer following the death of former batsman Deepak Shodhan at the age of 87 in Ahmedabad in 2016. Gaekwad himself died at the age of 95.
Mike Procter was South Africa’s first coach upon their return to international cricket after the fall of apartheid and was an outstanding all-rounder who was rarely seen by the world due to the country’s isolation from international cricket. Procter played only seven Tests between 1967 and 1970 and would have joined Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan and Richard Hadlee in an era of great all-rounders had South Africa not been isolated.
He was a leading player for Gloucestershire and in 401 first-class matches, Procter scored 21,936 runs at an average of 36.01 with 48 centuries and 109 fifties. He also took 1417 wickets while maintaining an incredible strike rate and average of 46.1 and 19.53 respectively. Procter played a role in South Africa’s return to success after rejoining international cricket, leading them to the semi-finals of the 1992 World Cup in Australia.
Arguably one of England’s greatest distance spinners, Underwood was the world number one bowler for almost four years between 1969 and 1973. Sunil Gavaskar described Underwood as one of the toughest bowlers he has ever faced. Underwood took 297 wickets in 86 Test matches between 1966 and 1982. The spin-bowling icon dedicated his entire first-class career to Kent.
Underwood officiated England’s famous victory over arch-rivals Australia at The Oval in 1968. The great England spinner had taken match-winning figures of 7-50 against his Ashes rivals at that time. When Underwood made his Test debut in 1966, he was 21 years old. He played his final Test for the Three Lions in 1982. Underwood played 86 Tests, taking 297 wickets at an average of 25.83, including 17 five-wicket hauls. He took a total of 2465 wickets in 676 first-class matches.
About six months after the death of his father Dutta Gaekwad, Anshuman Gaekwad also passed away. Gaikwad played 40 Tests and 15 ODIs from 1975 to 1987. He scored 1985 runs in Tests; His highest score in this format was 201, which came in a marathon 11-hour innings against Pakistan. Gaikwad’s statistics may not have been very impressive but he was known for his patience with the bat. Apart from his marathon double century against Pakistan, Gaikwad was also known for standing up against the West Indies’ tyranny during the controversial Jamaica Test of 1977. Gaikwad scored a brilliant 81 in that match, where captain Bishan Singh Bedi had to declare the innings early to protect the health of his teammates.
Gaikwad was the head coach of the Indian men’s team in two different stints; From 1997 to 1999 and again in 2000. During his tenure, India also finished runners-up in the 2000 Champions Trophy. Gaikwad also worked with the Kenyan team for some time. He was also a member of the BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), from which he resigned in 2019. In recent years, he served as the President of the Indian Cricketers’ Association.
Graham Thorpe’s death came as a shock to the cricket world and sparked a conversation on mental health in the game. The great former batsman died by suicide on August 4 at the age of 55. Thorpe scored 6744 runs in 100 Test matches between July 1993 and June 2005 at an average of 44.66 with 16 centuries and 39 half-centuries. He also played 82 ODI matches, scoring 2380 runs at an average of 37.18 and 21 half-centuries.
Thorpe retired from ODIs in 2002 and took an indefinite break from cricket following the public breakdown of his marriage. He then made a fairytale comeback to the game, scoring a century in the final Test against South Africa at The Oval in 2003 as England made an incredible comeback to draw the series 2–2. By the end of his career, Thorpe had scored 1511 runs at an average of 54.
Thorpe held coaching positions at various levels. He was England’s batting coach and assistant coach before stepping down in February 2022 following the 4–0 Ashes defeat. He was appointed as the head coach of Afghanistan in March 2022, but before joining the team, he was hospitalized with a serious illness. His widow Amanda later revealed that this was his first attempt to take his own life. Thorpe never commanded Afghanistan.
In November this year, Thorpe’s legacy was honored when he was named on the new trophy for which England and New Zealand will compete in Test cricket. This trophy is called the Crowe-Thorpe Trophy, named after Thorpe and the great New Zealand cricketer Martin Crowe.
Swedish football manager Sven-Göran Eriksson is best known for his tenure as manager of the England men’s football team between 2002 and 2006. Ericsson told public broadcaster Sveriges Radio that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer and that his doctor’s assessment was that he had “probably a year (to live) at most, a little less at worst”. “We knew about it but it happened very quickly. We were not prepared for what happened today,” Gustavsson told AFP.
Born on February 5, 1948 in Sunne, western Sweden, Eriksson, who goes by the name “Svennis”, found success as a football manager after retiring from a modest career as a defender. In 1977, he became manager of Swedish club Degerfors IF. After leading the small club to success in the lower divisions, he attracted the attention of bigger clubs.
Before finding success at international level he managed IFK Gothenburg of Sweden, Benfica in Portugal as well as several Italian teams including Roma and Lazio. His most high-profile position was as the first foreigner to manage the England national team. During his tenure, he took England to the World Cup quarter-finals in 2002, where they lost to Brazil.
