2022 – Top Ten Moments from the Indian Sports Arena

As we enter the last week of the year 2022 AD, it is time to make a list of things to remember the year going by. Presenting the Top 10 moments from the Indian sporting field (rated by yours truly).

1. Thomas Cup win: Stirring performances from Lakshya, Srikanth, Prannoy and Satwik-Chirag lead India to become just the 6th country to win the Thomas Cup. It was a culmination of a long journey to becoming a badminton powerhouse.
2. Neeraj Chopra becoming the Diamond League champion. Such is the amazing consistency of India’s first ever track & field Olympics champion that a silver in the World Athletics Championships (the first ever Indian to do so) is not his biggest moment of the year!
3. Avinash Sable winning the silver medal in 3000m Steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games and breaking Kenya’s dominance of the event. This is the first time since 1998 that Kenya did not have a clean sweep in this event!
4. MCG, Men's T20 World Cup, India vs Pakistan, Over 18.5 – Haris Rauf to Virat Kohli, lands for 6 behind the bowler off one of the most stunning shots seen in cricket – a straight punched loft over the bowler’s head! And somehow India sneak in a win out of nowhere after a dramatic last over.
5. Lawn Bowls Gold at Birmingham Commonwealth Games. An afternoon spent plonked in front of the TV watching Lawn Bowls 4s Final wasn’t a part of any plans. But Rupa Rani Tirkey, Nayanmoni Saikia, Lovely Choubey & Pinki Singh combined to bring a new sport to the collective Indian sporting minds. After all, we are fast learners (at least in learning the rules of a new game).
6. The Women’s Hockey team won the inaugural Nations Cup, getting their rightful place in the next season of Pro Hockey League. They should not have had to play this round given that as alternates the team finished 3rd in the previous edition of the League. But they proved once again that they belong in the top tier of World Hockey.
7. Deepti Sharma runs out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers end to seal a whitewash for India over England. A non-striker run-out (formerly known as Mankading) and that too at Lords! As expected, all hell broke loose on cricketing social media with the defenders of the so called “spirit of cricket” marching in on full battle mode! The debate kept going on and on for seemingly ages! Don’t remember so much attention to an incident in women’s game before!
8. Nikhat Zareen became the Boxing World Champion, India’s 5th ever female boxer! She also added a Commonwealth Games gold confirming that Mary Kom’s legacy is in good hands.
9. Mirabai Chanu lifting the silver at the World Championships with a sprained wrist!
10. Achanta Sharath Kamal, at the age of, 40 won 3 Golds and a Silver at the Commonwealth Games!

Other honorable mentions: Manika Batra winning the Bronze at Asian Cup; Rudrankksh Patil winning a World Cup Gold to qualify for the next Olympics Shooting; Bajrang Punia adding a 4th Wrestling World Championships medal and Vinesh Phogat getting her 2nd medal.

Finally for an announcement off the field of play. In a major step towards gender parity, BCCI announced that the women players will be given the same match fees as the men for internationals. A great initiative, but just the first step in a long journey to parity. And this is something basic to be done for all sports.

Now looking forward to the sporting year 2023, which has Hockey & Cricket World Cups, the postponed Asian Games (fingers crossed given the re-emergence of the Covid situation) and many Paris Olympics qualifiers scheduled!

Road To Tokyo: Episode 2

It's been eight months since I wrote the first episode in the "Road To Tokyo" series (which still comprises of that solitary post. Marvel folks make movies faster!). Had promised myself that I would write more regularly about India's preparations for the next Olympics at Tokyo in 2020. For different reasons, mainly general laziness and other distractions competing for the limited resource, that is time, somehow was not able to complete my second post so far. 

Originally had planned for the second episode to be about the changes made to the events schedule from Rio (and there have been a lot). However, while I dilly-dallied in my write-up, we witnessed our first big event in the "Road to Tokyo", the XXI Commonwealth Games (CWG) at Gold Coast, Australia. So instead, chose to write on India's performance at Gold Coast and what we should read from it. 

To be honest, we focus too much on the CWG. I guess, primarily due lots of medals pouring in from every direction during the course of the Games, a rare sight for an Indian sports fan at any multi-disciplinary event. However, given the overall level of competition it should be treated just as we treat the frequent tri-nation cricket tournaments. A feel-good factor on winning but it is not the World Cup or Champions Trophy. In my opinion, the CWG are a good warm-up event for the Olympics. Given their timing, two years before the Olympics, they also provide an opportunity to evaluate and undertake mid-course corrections in the four-year journey. 

So what can we take out from India’s performance? India won 26 Golds, 20 Silvers and 20 Bronze medals to finish 3rd in the medals table. This was a marked improvement from Glasgow where we had 15 Golds, 30 Silvers & 19 Bronze Medals to finish 5th. The increase in the Gold medal count was especially heartening to see. 

Amongst the sports which are a part of the Tokyo roster, India got medals from seven major disciplines - Shooting, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Boxing, Badminton, Table Tennis and Athletics. We also got medals in Squash, but that didn’t make the cut for Tokyo. 

• Shooting – We dominate this event at the CWG. And that is why there is such a hue and cry that the next edition in Birmingham will not feature Shooting. There have been even calls to boycott the Games totally if Shooting is not included (totally ridiculous IMO). But back to the current Games. While India extended their dominance, what was heartening to see was the performance of the new generation of Indian shooters some of whom are still in school! Manu Bhaker, Anish Bhanwala, Mehuli Ghosh are still in their teens and shooting world records. Hopefully they can up their game further through more exposure and wipe off the agony off the Rio Games. Seems that NRAI’s self-introspection post-Rio is giving results. 
• Weightlifting – Thankfully, India’s performers are clean now and the overhanging cloud of drugs has dissipated. Mirabai Chanu is the current World Champion and just blew off the competition. In fact, she lifted more than the winner of the next higher weight category. Certainly a contender at Tokyo. Rest of the contingent continued India’s good run at the Games. 
• Wrestling – India sent 12 wrestlers, all of whom returned with a medal. Maybe some of the female wrestlers could have done better. But nothing much should be read in the performances except that Sushil Kumar is still a force to be reckoned with. 
• Boxing – A marked improvement from Glasgow as all eight men returned with medals. Women’s front was slightly disappointing, however, Mary Kom got her 1st CWG Gold. 
• Badminton – India were expected to dominate and that’s exactly what they did. There is still scope for improvement though, which Gopichand and company would already have begun working on. Great to see an India vs India Final as Saina Nehwal defeated PV Sindhu to win the Gold. 
• Table Tennis – Manika Batra was the break-out star for India with 4 medals including two Golds while consistently beating higher ranked opponents. Only time would tell if the Gold Coast Games are an inflexion point in Indian Table Tennis and if Manika can become a trail-blazer like Saina. 
• Athletics – Neeraj Chopra lived up to the hype and delivered a Gold. He is still 20 and hopefully will only improve further. Mohammed Anas broke the National Record in 400m finals and finished 4th, showing how far behind we are from the world standards. Hima Das is certainly one to watch out for in the near future. 
• There were a few National records set in Swimming, but we were nowhere in contention for a medal. While in Gymnastics, Aruna Reddy couldn’t replicate her World Cup medal winning form. 

Now for the lows 

• The poor performance by the Hockey teams, both of whom finished 4th in the competition. Really need to pull up their socks. Bigger challenges are coming in the year ahead including World Cups and Asian Games. 
• Doping – While no athlete was caught doping, the Indian contingent had not one but two violations of the “no needle” policy. Two athletes were even sent back. This is a crying shame and worse than poor performance on the field. Hopefully, the athletes, coaches and management are made better aware of the rules and regulations and we do not see a repeat of such things. 

Overall Gold Coast was a happy hunting ground for the Indian contingent. But the real test is to come in Asian Games later this year. Also, qualifications for quite a few of the disciplines would begin in earnest. And that’s when we would well and truly be on the Road to Tokyo! 

Links: 

• Road To Tokyo, Episode 1
• India at 2018 Commonwealth Games, Wikipedia

India @ Commonwealth Games 2014

2014 - Gold 15, Silver 30, Bronze 19 - Total 64 - Overall 5th in the Standings

2010 - Gold 38, Silver 27, Bronze 36 - Total 101 - Overall 2nd in the Standings

At first glance, seems a big drop in results over the 4 years. But if we go into the details, a better picture of the Indian sports scene emerges. Table below compares the discipline wise performance of the Indian contingent at the recent Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow and the one held in Delhi 4 years ago.

E-Events; G-Gold; Silver; B-Bronze; T - Total; Diff - Change in Total medals with respect to 2010

A few key observations from the table

1. Archery & Tennis which combined to bring 12 medals in Delhi were dropped from the Glasgow roster and replaced by Judo & Triathalon which brought 4 medals for India. 
2. Number of events in Shooting and Wrestling were drastically reduced. So 57 events which brought in 49 medals in Delhi became 33 events bringing in 30 medals. So a better proportion overall.
3. Athletics had a major climbdown from 12 to just 3. Here the quality of participants changed drastically from Delhi. There were fewer big names pulling out of competition in Glasgow as compared to Delhi. 
4. Table Tennis was another event which went down with the haul reducing from 5 to 1. The Chinese imports on the TT arena are hurting us badly now.
5. Boxing is becoming an area of concern. There is a visible slide in the results now. No gold medals and a reduced overall haul should be a sign that the Boxing team, though still good, needs to pull up its socks.
6. Weightlifting has shown quite an improvement. More than the medals, hopefully there is an end to the multiple doping scandals of the past which had earlier led to India being banned from international competitions.
7. India got its first ever medal in Squash and that too a Gold. Good signs.
8. We now have India's first ever female medallist in Gymnastics. Something which couldn't even have been imagined till Delhi 2010.
9. Even the Lawn Bowls team reached a Bronze medal face-off though lost at the very end.
10. The higher number of Silvers against Golds should be an area of concern, specially with regard to the number of losses suffered in the finals. A lack of finishing touch or just a one-off case?

The Commonwealth Games in Delhi may have been marred by lots of corruption allegations, but they did raise the profile of the other sportspersons (i.e. all non-cricket) in India. Also factor in IOA being suspended for quite some time. So in all not too bad a result for Indian sports overall. 

However a better indicator of the progress will come via the Asian Games in Incheon later this year. 

The Commonwealth Games - As I Would Remember Them

October 14, 2010

The Closing Ceremony of the 19th Commonwealth Games. That the Games took place at all could be considered a success given all the negative hype which was surrounding it. It may have been many things to many, but this is what I would remember the Games for (my perspective maybe quite limited because I am sitting in Mumbai while everything went on in Delhi)

• The pre game fiasco. Not on time, things collapsing, dirty, atheletes withdrawing, corruption everywhere, even the theme song. As a public relations disaster dont think there have been many on this scale.
• Then came the opening ceremony. In my opinion the perfect showcase of India. And this went a long way in removing most of the earlier fears. The closing ceremony was a bit off a letdown though except for the marching band (Or maybe my expectations were much higher).
• The crowds. We always do things in extreme. Either the attendance was poor or there were complaints from atheletes getting distracted by the noise from the crowds.
• The joy of getting to sing the national anthem many times.
• The two hockey matches. India-Pakistan & India-England semi-finals. Awesome atmosphere and fantastic performance from the team (that we received a thrashing in the final is a different matter)
• The 4X400m womens' relay team winning the gold. And the noise was well unbelievable. And this had to happen almost simulataneously with the hockey semi-finals.
• Sushil Kumar's wrestling bouts. He came, saw and conquered. As simple as that. Winning a semi-final bout in just 9 seconds. No fuss.
• Paramjeet Samota winning boxing gold. Somehow I saw all his bouts live.
• Archery finals. Saw them both. Dipika Kumari's perfect 10-10-10. The men's medals ceremony was alongwith Sachin Tendulkar hitting his 14,000th Test run.
• Attempting to understand Lawn Bowls. Now this was one weird game. Though seemed fit for people of all ages.
• The India-England ding dong battle for the 2nd spot. Saina Nehwal won what could be considered the most important badminton match in history to win gold and take India ahead of England on the last day.
• There was a theme song made by A R Rahman specially for the Games. I think a modified Jai Ho would have been the better choice. Anyways Jai Ho was the song which played more often.
• Overall India achieved its target of 100 medals and overall 2nd spot. A better reflection of how much India has improved in the sports arena will come in the next month's Guangzhou's Asian Games.

As an aside, the Commonwealth Games also managed to distract attention from the Ayodhya judgement. We should be thankful for a safe games. And hope this increased awareness continues to give good results in the future.

And now that the Games are over, its time to nail all the jokers who almost turned this into a huge fiasco.

Time to nail the corrupt.

The Games Have Begun

The spectacular opening cenremony for the Commonwealth Games have shown once again the power of the last minute work. There were fears that the games may not take off at all, nothing was ready. Once the ceremony had begun, all such fears proved to be unfounded. The old philosophy of doing the waork at the very last minute prevailed.

Here are my thoughts on the opening ceremony.

1. The show looked good, or rather would have looked better if not for DD's coverage. The show began live and turned out to be deffered live as ad breaks came in between. Other "breaking news" & twitter were far ahead of the "Live Telecast".

2. The highlights of the program was definetely the aerostat (blimp's big brother).

3. The march past of the atheletes. Here is a confession.Apart from Bindra I had not heard of even a single flag bearer before. The cheers when Pakistan marched in was, well, amusing. We love to hate them. And it was a great feeling to see the huge Indian contingent march in. England's Nehru coats were also interesting, as were the Kiwi's angavatrams.

4. Speech time. Kalmadi booed. President, Prime Minister & Prince Charles - nobody cared. Huge cheers for India, Sheila Dixit & APJ Abdul Kalam. Couldnt have been a better popularity index for our leaders. It was nice of kalmadi to mention Atal Behari Vajpayee in his speech though.

5. Gandhi, Indian Railways, Folk Dances, the many drums, the tiny tabla player, Hariharan's welcome song and Rehman's Jai Ho to finish it. It was a perfect showcase of India without trying to Bollywoodize it.

In the end the Games got off to a rousing start. Twitter & Facebook timelines also suggested the same. Lets hope for a fantastic games as well (on the field).

P.S. In the euphoria of the spectacular opening ceremony, lets not forget all the corruption scandals. The guilty better be punished.