When you are inhaling the poisonous Delhi air that pumps your lungs, looking ahead with hope for a great future in the new year seems a difficult proposition.
Yet life must go on as nothing sustains it more than a vision of a future where your wishes become real.
India may not be a sporting power yet, far from it, but there is a lot happening next year that should reaffirm a nation’s progress in winning competitions. The T20 World Cup and the Asian Games are two major sporting events where India should showcase its undeniable strength. As hosts of cricket’s shortest and arguably most popular format, India, in the minds of its fans and more importantly in the opinion of most experts, are the favourites to win. Nothing surprising, given the spread of the game, abundance of resources, money and the vast multitude that plays and benefits from a money-spinning tournament like the Indian Premier League.
In a cricket-centric nation, India has lagged behind in other sporting disciplines where competition is far tougher and playing nations greater in number and strength. India may have hosted the first Asian Games in 1951, but has never topped its medals tally, finishing fourth in the last Games in 2023. While there is no hope of overtaking or even getting anywhere close to China, which is a formidable sporting power in the world, India can dream of overtaking Japan and South Korea in the event to be held in Nagoya, Japan, in September-October next year.
In this future-gazing game and fulfilling of wishes, let us not forget that nothing reflects a nation and its society’s civilisational goals more than the way it plays sports and the manner in which its people react to victory and defeat. Do we look at sports as a manifestation of excellence in physical skills, an art form that transcends boundaries of national loyalties, caste, creed and religion? Is skill subservient to the nation-state or does it break human boundaries and unite people of the world in celebrating the limitless possibilities of achieving perfection? As I reflect on what lies ahead, many life-changing experiences of the past flash in my mind.
Experiences that serve as a lesson for what should not be and what to desire for in this relentless, inexorable forward march of time. What is an aspiration or an achievement worth if its end-goal is to make the “other” feel insecure and inferior? Does one aspire to win to feel good and satisfied at having showcased mastery over a particular skill-set, or does one win to show the other side weak and meek?
I have grappled with these questions ever since I felt “humiliated” at defeats on a cricket field in foreign lands. India’s tour of Australia in 1999 left deep scars on my psyche, where I felt that an entire nation and its media were against India as a nation. More than the defeats, the over-the-top crowd celebrations and the equating of India with “dark ages” felt like a piercing stab in the gut.
In one of the Test matches, India refused to play under floodlights when fading light interfered with the match. The playing conditions stated consent from both sides if such an eventuality arose. India exercised its right. A headline in the next day’s paper screamed: Back to dark ages. More than a series of defeats, the loud, intimidating celebrations of the crowd made us sulky, smarting, wounded and helpless. When in one of the Tests, a ducking Sachin Tendulkar was given lbw to a Glenn McGrath bouncer that hardly rose knee-high, a scathing piece against umpire Daryl Harper followed in the newspaper I was covering the tour for. Tendulkar was probably out, but a siege mentality had gripped us, hence the angry reaction.
While nothing went right on that tour, a lengthy opinion piece in a leading Australian paper ridiculed the ill-tempered, macho, over-the-top Australian team’s reactions and the aggressive crowd celebrations. It called its own team, for these very reasons, the most “disliked” in the cricket world. That article had put things in a larger perspective of national identity and sports. It advocated saner ways of celebrating victories and tried to convey that what is loud and visible need not mean it represents the majority sentiment. Over the years, Indian cricket has transformed into this gigantic monolith of muscle and money power, with its team having gained in strength and riches. History, however, has not taught us to become humbler. The “hunted” has become the “hunter”. To those who were at the receiving end of Australian taunts and jibes in 1999, the Indian crowds and its media appear no different from them today.
The last match I have seen at a ground, among the crowds, was the India-Afghanistan 2023 World Cup match in Delhi’s Kotla stadium. The flag-waving, raucous celebrations and verbal targeting of the Afghan supporters was scary. It was more like a mob looking for a target than fans enjoying a game of cricket while celebrating their own team’s superior performance.
Among the many wishes I have for the next year is to see a more inclusive India, sensitive to gender and caste inequalities among its athletes. Let talent and not religion define a sportsperson. I wish for us to realise that sports is not being in a territorial war with the enemy. It is not played with guns and bombs. A loss does not mean the end of life and winning not a conquest of the world.
Here’s to a Happy New Year in pursuit of excellence, with the goal of playing the game of sports and life with courage, skill and wisdom.