Indian sport is a wonderful place but you would never know it if you were a layperson. The peak, D Mukesh’s world-record win in Singapore, all other episodes of our 2024 retrospective — those are probably a dozen-odd stories every neophyte will remember, few more. Why then am I calling it a great place? Because just behind those headlines lie tales of determination, hard work and success – maybe not success as such, but still success.
Look at Arjuna Award Winners in 2025. What about those names, how many do you know? How many of their feats do you recall? Jyothi Yarraji’s anti-silver in the 2023 Asian Games? Saweety Bora’s historic boxing World Championship gold medal that same year? Abhay Singh’s bluff in the deciding match of the Asian Games squash final – against Pakistan, after all?
And even these are top-line athletes, with top-line medals. There is another planet of achievement which never even makes it to the national awards but that is success still; those achievements get scribbled on the sports pages of the Indian newspapers, or on news sites, or even on social media accounts. All there is to be found, all the good (and the bad) news if only we will look. And that’s my hope for all of us, all of us who are sports lovers, to not look at the obvious headlines but instead see the amazing place that is Indian sports. It’s always a rewarding experience.
Remember their names
Sunaadh Sagar
It is not an Olympic year and there are no major multi-sports events so the odds of an unused cricketer getting into the national consciousness are very slim. Six medals in Paris 2024 and everyone’s saying it was a losing Olympics but there are a lot of Indians, and all of them finished 4th, there’s enough medal-winners in our nation’s sporting bag.
And these athletes will now grind away to the next Olympic season, where instead of sponsors banging on the Neeraj Chopras and Manu Bhakers of the world (not that that is a bad thing), they will have to fight funding scarcity, illiterate federations and public uninterest.
And it is now, they require most love, most exaltation. That’s when Olympic gold comes in. So, follow the home show, celebrate their successes, no matter how trivial, and just, don’t forget their names. Just do that and LA 28 will return far more than six.
Inertia from the Indian national football teams
Aaditya Narayan
2024 was a non-starter for Indian football at every age, male and female. There’s a reset for 2025. As for Manolo Marquez, it is the Asian Cup Qualifiers that will be of paramount importance and India are placed along with Bangladesh, Singapore and Hong Kong. There is no qualification without the top team, and India will have to continue scoring in the qualification tournament. If not they’ll have people chanting for PIOs to get some time on the pitch again for India especially with Leicester City forward Hamza Chaudhary playing for Bangladesh in the India match.
The women, who will play their own qualification game to the Asian Cup also under new coach Joakim Alexandersson, and it’s an attempt to get back to a tournament where they lost a place to COVID-19 spreading in their camp in 2022.
Reaching continental competition every time is the most Indian football can do, and if it is not handled this year, then it is time to hold the AIFF and the other entities involved in regulating football in India to some account.
Indian women hockey team has to impact
Anish Anand
As far as hockey is concerned, it isn’t one of the big competition years but still a crucial one and that too in the case of the Indian women’s hockey team. Harendra Singh is now in charge, has led the team to the Asian Champions Trophy win but they have to continue on a growth spurt this year.
Salima Tete and crew will face the big boys in FIH Pro League and Asia’s elite in Asia Cup, 2026 World Cup Qualifying Tournament. Pro League Champion is not a cakewalk, but a high-progressive level would be to get into the top three; as well as good efforts by young faces such as Deepika, Sunelita Toppo, Beauty DungDung, Sangita Kumari etc. To knock out China’s top team in the Asia Cup, as opposed to the tainted version at the Asian Champions Trophy, would also mean Harendra Singh’s tactics working.
There’s enough talent on the team and with good coaching and regular performances there’s room for growth.
Rifling bureaucratic disaster to be swept up
Zenia D’Cunha
Two years ago, the best wrestlers in India took to the mat in protest against the administration of the Wrestling Federation of India. This included seriously charged sexual harassment against then chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. And lots has happened since, lawsuits and an Olympic gold medal, pullouts and new elections… but no real resolution of the matter.
BBSS’ members still hold influence and there is still confusion on competitions and camps. The fact that Indian wrestlers can work within this madness was established in Paris, but for them to do their best work the system must be in order, and they must be accountable.
In a year without any big multi-sport festival, Indian sports-lovers should not forget that we must be held accountable to something beyond the gold and the money spent on athletes. We need it from governments, from the courts that hear these cases and from all of us. Wrestlers vs BBSS case is the best manifestation of this and it would be a good message to clear it right now when India bids for the Olympics.
This is 2025… para-athletes deserve something
Anirudh Menon
“I’m going to have public sporting stadiums in 600 districts across the length and breadth of the nation to reach the grass roots. I have asked multiple state governments to make sure their stadiums are ramped, wheelchair accessible and with accessible toilets”, Paralympic Committee of India Chairman (and one of this country’s best players) Devendra Jhajaria told ESPN before the Paralympics.
India is not a country with para friendly architecture and infrastructure so such a basic objective was understandable. The crowd voted this, with great enthusiasm in September 2024 when the para-athletes made a show of it and collected more medals than India ever won on a big stage. Here’s to radio silence… do them no favor and keep quiet till 2028.
Para-friendly infrastructure sounds like too easy a thing to support, but here’s where it all begins. For all the stakeholders, let’s keep a common foot on the gas and just keep building up while the top-end Indian para sports keeps climbing to new heights.