Rahul Chandawarkar is a Colva based journalist and former editor. He is a recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism award for 2009
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Football: Quite creditably, India moved 31 places to finish with a world ranking of 135, our best in six years. This happened when Sunil Chettri and his merry men beat a strong Afghan team 2-1 in early January to become South Asian champions. They also created a flutter when they thrashed a higher ranked Puerto Rican team by 4 goals to one in the international friendly at Mumbai
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As the sun sets on 2016, we can look back with a degree of satisfaction at India’s sporting year. Here is a quick synopsis with a few lessons for the future…
Football: Quite creditably, India moved 31 places to finish with a world ranking of 135, our best in six years. This happened when Sunil Chettri and his merry men beat a strong Afghan team 2-1 in early January to become South Asian champions. They also created a flutter when they thrashed a higher ranked Puerto Rican team by 4 goals to one in the international friendly at Mumbai. It was also heartening to see our best club side, the Bengaluru FC become the first Indian football team to reach the finals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup.
Way forward: AIFF must sort out the ISL-Indian League conundrum asap and concentrate on spreading the sport at the grassroots level.
Hockey: Team India began the year strongly by finishing second to Australia in the Azlan Shah hockey tourney. The team also played some very close games at Rio but crashed out in the quarter finals to finish sixth in world rankings. However, they bounced back by beating Pakistan 3-2 to lift the prestigious Asian Hockey Championships in October. The Indian eves also drew inspiration from the men and beat the Chinese girls to win the Asian Hockey Championships in early November. More recently, the Indian junior boys provided the icing on the cake by beating Belgium 2-1 to win the Junior World Cup in front of a happy Lucknow crowd.
Way forward: Hockey India (HI) must work hard with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in taking the sport to the grassroots levels across the country.
Multi-Sports: Team India began the year extremely well by winning the South Asian Games with a total of 188 gold medals in February. And though the performance of our athletes at Rio was far from satisfactory, badminton ace PV Sindhu with her silver medal and wrestler Sakshi Malik with her bronze lifted the morale of a depressed nation. And the smiles only got bigger, when our fantastic Paralympians took centre stage. High jumpers Thangavelu and Varun Singh raised the bar with their gold and bronze medals, while the consistent Jhajharia won yet another javelin gold with a world record throw and shot putter Deepa Malik made us proud with a silver medal.
Way forward: The Centre must emulate the ‘UK Sport’ model to pump in more money and infrastructure to create more podium finishes at Tokyo.
Kabaddi: The widely televised Kabaddi Pro League deserves full marks for making kabaddi, hitherto a rural and semi-urban sport into a popular spectator sport. By winning the World Cup in October this year in Ahmedabad, India has stamped its undisputed authority on the sport.
Way forward: The SAI must work with the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) to spread the sport at the grassroots level.
Golf: Aditi Ashok (18) of Bengaluru created a flutter at Rio when she became the youngest golfer in a field of 60 and finished a creditable 41st. Her pedigree was soon on display, when she won the 2016 Hero Women's Indian Open and became the first Indian to win a Ladies European Tour title. By winning the Qatar Ladies Open soon thereafter, Aditi has finished the season, second on the Order of Merit and has also won the ‘Rookie of the Year’ award.
Among Indian male golfers, Anirban Lahiri continues to be the most impressive with a world ranking of 77 and is the most consistent of Indian golfers on the international circuit. Following closely behind is Bengaluru’s S Chikkarangappa who won the prestigious Indian Masters tournament in November.
Way Forward: The Indian Golf Union must continue with their Tee20 strategy to encourage younger players to take to the sport.
Gymnastics: Tripura’s Dipa Karmakar won the nation’s hearts when she came within a whisker of winning an Olympic medal at the Rio Games. But do not despair. The little lady has opened the floodgates for more Indians to take to this graceful sport.
Way Forward: SAI must seriously spread gymnastics across the country and unearth more Dipas.
Cricket: A hugely successful year for the Indian Test cricket team. Under the enthusiastic leadership of Virat Kohli, the test team won nine of the 12 Test matches that they played in 2016 making them the number one team in the world. Dhoni’s ODI team too had a decent run by winning the Asia Cup and series wins against the Lankans, Kiwis and Zimbabweans.
Way Forward: The BCCI must abide quickly with the Lodha committee recommendations and stop behaving like a petulant school boy.
Last but not the least, India as a nation must emulate wrestler Mahavir Phogat’s resilience and determination (so vividly portrayed in ‘Dangal’, the film) in creating world class champions.
