How Should India Capitalized on The CWG Success

An old article written for the Global Times

“All well that ends well”. This is how the saying goes. And the biggest instance to prove this saying is the Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010. Despite all the hiccups in the built up for the mega event, India finally manages to pull it off with perfection, shutting all the confusion preceding the game. With this success, India not only justified its claim of being a super power in the making, it also announced it arrival on the global stage in sports.

India’s Commonwealth Games journey began in 1934 in its second edition when wrestler Rashid Anwar opened India’s account with a sole Bronze. It was the “Flying Sikh” Milkha Singh who brought India its first Gold in the 1958 edition. However 2010 edition saw a giant leap with a record medal haul of 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals, the best-ever harvest by the Indians in the Games history. The 38 Gold propelled India to a record-high second position and end the multi-discipline event on a thumping note.

However this hard earned success should not be drained away and India should look to built it from here. It remains to be seen what the Sports Ministry does after the CWG to keep the youths hooked to sports and developed sports in every sphere. Children’s should be encouraged to take up sports while schools and colleges should be directed to introduce sports. Apart from developing players, world class infrastructure should also be in place to provide the best training facilities to our athletes’.

Moreover India should also bid for more sporting event to be considered as global sports hubs. If countries like China and Brazil have the capacity and mettle to hold Olympics why should India lack behind. Brazil will be hosting the world’s two largest sporting event in a span of two years – The 2014 FIFA World Cup followed by The Olympics in 2016. On the other hand China is all set for the Asian Games next month in Guangzhou after hosting the best ever Olympics in 2008. So, India should go full on from now to successfully bid for the 2020 Olympic.

If successful, then India should also bid for the 2015 Afro-Asian Games and 2018 Summer Youth Olympics to keep a brace with the preparation for the 2020 Olympic. Then 2023 should see India hosting the XIX Asian Games again after 41 years and ultimately the FIFA World Cup in 2026 or 2030. Meanwhile hosting events like the Cricket World Cup, World Badminton Championship and other single discipline events will establish India as a global hub for sports. If India can achieve these in the coming 20 years, sports scenario of the country would change immensely and India certainly will be a global player in sports.

However all these events should be hosted in different cities of India like Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai so that sporting infra and facilities are evenly spread out across the country instead of concentrating it in Delhi alone. This will eventually help in tapping and developing talented youths throughout the country and also provide a world class training facilities in each region of the country. A good infrastructure and training facilities will also boost the morality of Indian parents, who refrain from sports being taken up as a profession by their children’s.

There might be a debate that instead of spending so much on staging such events, the money should be diverted for eradication of poverty. But I say, poverty can be eradicated from our country only after eradicating corruptions within us. And no nation can strive ignoring its sports. Everything should be developed simultaneously for a nation to reach the zenith.

To conclude, India’s claim to arrive as a major sporting nation all depends on the athletes participating in the Guangzhou Asian Games in China next month. It will be a testing ground for the Indian Athletes to prove that their massive medals haul in The Commonwealth Games was not a fluke and they are capable of doing it every time anywhere. If the Indians repeat their good show next week then it’s a warning bell to the world that we are here and we are here to stay whether it’s in India, China or Brazil.