Heartbreaks are an integral part of life, especially in today’s fast charging world. More so in sports, heartbreaks arrive at breakneck speed given the intense competition in every sporting activity. The hallmark of a good athlete is to overcome the heartbreak in the quickest possible time and move forward. The biggest heartbreak in Indian sports in 2023 was the final loss to Australia in the ODI World Cup in Ahmedabad. After winning 10 matches on the trot, the Indian cricket team faltered miserably at the final hurdle.
In the league phase and the semifinal captain Rohit Sharma lived up to his sobriquet of ‘Hit-man’. But in the final match even as millions of home fans were sure that international limited overs cricket’s ultimate prize (the ODI World Cup) was ‘Rohit Senas’, after all, the Australians led ably by speedster Pat Cummins crushed the Indian team with vengeance and the kangaroos hoped away home with the trophy.
Even Indian badminton stars too fared badly in the World Tour competitions and suffered the pain of heartbreaks. Only the talented doubles pair of Satwik and Chirag brought some cheer becoming the world No 1 ranked doubles pair in the sport when they won title in the Hangzou Asian Games. This Gopichand Academy pair from Hyderabad won the doubles Gold Medal for India after a gap of 41 years.
However, 2023 cannot be described as a heartbreak year for Indian sports altogether. Before the cricket World Cup final fiasco, Indian sports (cricket included) hit a new high at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou – a city in China famous for its tea as well as silk. Our talented sportspersons put up a fabulous performance and brought home 107 medals – the count included (our best so far in a multi-discipline competition) – 28 Gold medals, 38 silver and 41 bronze medals. The Hangzhou Games medal winning heroes set the ball rolling for more upcoming talent in future multi discipline competitions with immediate focus on Paris Olympic Games 2024.
Some of India’s shining stars included Jyothi Eureka, Ojas Deotale, Abhishek Varma, Vithya Ramraj, Neeraj Chopra, Kishore Jena, Avinas Sable, Aishwary Tomar, Esha Singh, Sift Kaur Samra, Saurav Choral and Harinder Sandu. At the Hangzhou Games India’s commendable medal haul came from archery, athletics, badminton, bridge, boxing, chess, cricket, canoeing, equestrian, field hockey, golf, kabaddi, roller sports, rowing, squash, sailing, sepaktakraw, tennis, table tennis, wrestling and wushu.
The heartening show at Hangzhou is proof enough for argument that Indian sport is poised to achieve greater heights and sporting talent is indeed part of our youth’s personality. Only, it has to be nurtured the right way in schools especially as well as colleges through programmes such as ‘Khelo India’.
One sport which has been consistently emphasising the ‘hidden talent waiting to be correctly tapped is avowedly chess, our indigenous sport. Down the decades ever since five times world champion Viswanathan Anand rose in the international arena, Indian sport has been producing many male and female talents alike. And 2023 turned out to be with the emergence of the first brother-sister Grand Master pair in Tamil Nadu’s R. Praggnanandhaa and R. Vaishali. What’s more, both qualified for the Candidates Tournament in Canada next year. Vaishali became only the third Woman GM from India after Andhra Pradesh’s Koneru Hampi ( former World Champion) and Dronavalli Harika. Vaishali earned her GM title while winning the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss 2023. Praggnanandhaa became GM a few years back. He emerged runner up in World Chess World in November.
Unfortunately, the year also saw controversies including harassment allegations made by women wrestlers against former president of Wrestling Federation of India and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh. The allegations made by Olympians Sakshi Malik and Vineet Poghat found supporter from junior wrestlers too. With the police taking up investigations, Brij Bhushan quit his post but typically made sure that his close confidant Sanjay Singh occupied the chair.
The miffed wrestlers Sakshi and Vineet quit their post and some of them wrote to Prime Minister Modi saying they would be returning their national honours, including Padma Awards. The Union Sports Ministry – in what many considered too little and too late – suspended the Wrestling Federation of India for discrepancies in conducting junior events. The Indian Olympic Association headed by veteran athlete P.T. Usha has been asked to take over the activities of the Wrestling Federation.
The unsavoury incidents of the Wrestling Federation of India strongly drove home the point that Indian sport can leap forward only if there is good and transparent governance in our sports associations.
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