Management Perspectives

A lot has been happening on the economic and technological front in India, along with our climb up the political and diplomatic ladder, as we make subtle progress in almost all walks of life. In this article, I plan to focus on the ‘softer aspects’ like sports— for the able-bodied as well as persons with disabilities. Sports reflect on a holistic growth of Indian society which, to my mind, is important for any nation that has the ambition to become a super-power or at least reach the upper middle class one level by around 2050. Sports excite nationalism and, unlike politics, everyone respects rules on the field. No matter how nationalist the home crowds may be, if their team loses, it loses in the open and if it wins that too is in the open. There is no cold war in sports and all games are transparent from start to finish. If you do not agree with the rules, you are not allowed to play. The historic example of the WW2-time Olympics, when Hitler offered the great Indian hockey player Dhyan Chand to switch to the German team and he politely refused, even the Fuhrer respected this decision. Violence on the sports arena is simply not allowed. Sportsmanship is above all and is an acid test of how a society and the country are evolving. India is witnessing an era of transformation in sports and that should rub off to everything else.

Let me start with our most popular sportcricket. Notwithstanding the fact that we lost the final of the 2024 Men’s World Cup to Australia that broke a millions of hearts, watching the league matches every day, with India’s unprecedented record of winning all matches and the gruelling semi-final with New Zealand, filled every citizen’s heart with pride. Hundreds of millions were glued to the TV screen hoping and praying for a great game and yet another win for the ‘men in blue’. Virat or Rohit figuring in the chart of top run-getters or Shami’s name on the top of the world’s best wicket-takers is always a matter of national pride. These things do not happen by luck; such performances need consistent attention to work ethics, hard work,superb fitness, sustained practice, strength of character, regular introspection, and honest dissection of one’s game…. in short values of life. Comparisons inevitably go to the 1983 Circket World Cup, when Kapil Dev led Team India to victory. Kapil Dev’s performance wasn’t mere luck—it was the man’s resolve, determination, superb fitness, and strength of character that brought great honor to the country. World Cup or IPL or any other cricket series is not just hoopla and big money; it means much more. It is a test of the discipline and rigorous training of the players, unquestionable umpiring, diligent work of those who prepare pitches and planning/ execution capabilities of the administrators. It involves many life lessons that reflect on character building of a team, society, and in a way, an entire nation! As a recent advertorial by a sports shoes manufacturer mentioned about the, power of sports and wellbeing is not just for the body but also for the mind.

After Australia’s win against India in the World Cup, Prime Minister Modi congratulated the winning team in the presence of the Australian Prime Minister. This shows great courtesy and sportsmanship. We did not cancel any of the elaborate music and dance performances, award presentations to previous World Cup-winning captains and other razzmatazz; our players were sad but they did not sulk.

And, what happened in Hangzhou (China) during the 2023 Asian Games. Finally, India could claim that it’s athletes were measuring up to world standards. Our medals tally of 70 at the last edition of the games in Jakarta was bested this time with a whopping 107—28 gold, 38 silver, and 41 bronze—putting us in the fourth place. All this shows huge strides by way of improved coaching facilities, selections from a bigger base of youngsters, sponsorships for training, and fire in the belly. By far, the most soul-stirring sports success story for me is our team’s success at the Paralympics that followed at Hangzhou. No one can forget the video of 16-year-old Sheetal Devi—born without arms—from a village in Jammu and Kashmir, drawing the bow with her toes and going on to win three golds in mixed archery. It was an NGO volunteer who saw her a few years ago, while she was undergoing some treatment in Bengaluru, and felt that she could take up archery and introduced her to coaches at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Sports Academy in Jammu. The senior coaches felt that indeed archery would be a good fit for her indomitable grit and power of concentration. They modified equipment for her to train with her legs and the rest, as they say, is golden history! Similar great sense of purpose and nationalist fervour was displayed by other para athletes like Adil Ansari in Archery (bronze), Praveen Kumar in High Jump (gold), Ankur Dhama (golds in 1,500 and 5,000 meters). The most inspirational thing here is that all of them are from poor families and hail from different parts of the country—great on the inclusivity front! The record haul of 111 medals, including 29 gold, is the country’s biggest ever tally at any major multisport event. No wonder we are now aspiring to host the Summer Olympics in 2036. It may be like a ‘coming out party’ and our need to make a statement because we have now reached a respectable per capita GDP milestone. China spent a whopping $44 billion on the 2008 summer Olympics which is steep for us and yet! Our own CWG in 2010 cost the country $9 billion but, of course, a lot of it was on non-sports infrastructure which would serve for decades.

The recent cricket tournament also brought out the fact that India derives its strength from its diversity. Our players came from varied background—Gill from a Punjab village near the Pakistan border, Jadeja’s father worked as a watchman in Jamnagar, Siraj’s father drove an auto-rickshaw in Hyderabad. As more people get a chance to hone their skills and excel the more, our country will shine in other areas too. We are aware that there are huge differences in the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ of the country and now these gaps are beginning to close. League matches were held all over the country. A lot is indeed happening to bridge the yawning gaps in inclusivity which will add to give us an even greater soft sheen. Proportion of the poor has dipped to about 15 percent from about 25 per cent in 2015- 16. IAS and other civil services aspirants are coming from poor families in tier 2, 3, and 4 towns; daughters of farmers, mechanics and daily wage earners from Maharashtra villages are making it to the national hockey team; bright young achievers are getting involved with public healthcare in an effort to make it affordable, pioneering efforts are on for special needs education and healthcare for the disabled, support is emerging for the elderly by way of ‘companionship good-fellows’ like in Sweden, a successful ophthalmologist has opened five schools in the slums of the millennium city and now an IAS aspirant has changed tracks and is also taking classrooms to the slums in Gurugram. There is a ‘social exchange’ which should help NGOs to raise funds. Even the apex court has made space in the hallowed SC complex for a café run by the disabled and, as the CJI said, “Inclusiveness is not a mere aspiration, it is the key to unlocking full potential of our society.”

Of course, there are huge challenges too. Incidents of killings by drunken drivers and road rage murders are increasing at an alarming rate; so are tragic cases of rapes; ragging at universities at times leads to suicides; stalkers turn to injuring and even killing girls if they resist their advances; child marriages continue to happen and as the UN chief said “it will take India 300 years to end child marriages”; air quality in the metros is worsening year after year, so is the quality of water both leading to severe impact on life expectancy. There are ever-increasing cases of diabetes and cancer. No one paid heed to the SC orders and burst crackers on November 12, a major indicator of incoherence as a nation. Communal intolerance peaks at times—we saw a horrible case of a yatra turning into riots during the time our grand G20 Summit was on.