A New Year’s wish list for sport – India and the world

It’s that time of the year again. Awash in nostalgia—Thomas Cup! The hockey women! Avinash Sable! Nikhat Zareen! Surya! Deepti!—and yet grimly determined to embark on that doomed project of resolution-making. Hovering in the twilight zone of looking back and looking ahead, it’s the perfect time to once again indulge in a little whimsy, set aside the resolutions and make a wish list for 2023. Not about wins and losses, mind. In any case, the gods have (finally) given Messi his World Cup so no point being greedy. Plus 2023 is going to be Asian Games and three World Cups (men’s hockey, women’s T20 and men’s 50-over) year so brace for impact.

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This, ladies and gents, girls and boys, is the Left Field’s exclusive New Year Wish List for 2023, revealing those wishes that should come true and most definitely will not.

Like for example, the release of Netflix’s exclusive documentary called The Vanished. Which reveals the truth about the athletes who withdrew their names from the Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) electoral college for ten posts on the IOA Athletes Commission.

The 32 names on the original list of candidates ended up as a “unanimously elected” ten. Like we’ve got the word IDIOT tattooed on our foreheads. Even give or take a few dozen clerical errors, where did the big names among the 32 disappear? Like former hockey captain P Sreejesh, Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik, Thomas Cup winner and world badminton singles finalist Srikanth Kidambi and legendary footballer Bembem Devi? Great competitors, ambassadors of their sport and the country, suddenly back off from competing. What happened? Where did they go? Who changed their DNA?

The Vanished could be turned into a docudrama. Imagine the twists—the champions are stabbed in the back by one of their own hungry for higher office. It will have cruel set-ups, conspiracies, open threats, midnight phone calls of offers that can’t be refused. Everything culminating in a 2am meeting of turncoat and high-ranking sports bureaucrats assuring sports-loving ministers that everything had been fixed. Oo, can’t wait for the trailer. Too bad Akshay Kumar can’t play superhero rescuing Indian sports from political forces trying to… well, never mind.

The next wish leaves the dirty dealing behind and thinks positive. To be fair, the Athletes Commission is bursting with legend-ness. Headed by Mary Kom and Achantha Sharath Kamal, it’s got stellar names from badminton, hockey, rowing, weightlifting, fencing and athletics. In 2023, they make their first meeting a ShowMeTheMoney moment. They ask every sport to produce their financials for their athletes.

For e.g Hockey India’s player-president is asked how much of the ₹100 crore five-year (now 10) deal from the Odisha government went to the players. Down the line, top to bottom, districts to states to zones to nationals and to former players. The All India Football Federation’s (another player president, we should be so lucky) query is related to a June 2020 FIFA announcement. Of $500,000/ ₹4.13cr for women’s football for every member nation, along with 1.5 million ( ₹12.5 cr) as a general grant for football in every country. Show us your bank accounts, please.

In a perfect world, each member of the Athletes Commission—okay, so those with a working conscience—will start by first asking their sport for a forensic audit. And then divide the rest of the sports amongst each other and go after them with microscope, calculator, carrot and stick.

Naturally with all the administrative goodwill splashing about, our flashiest sport will not be left behind. In another meaningful gesture of gender equity, BCCI sets up the IWCTF (Indian Women’s Cricket Task Force). An independent department with its own identity, under its own management, staffed by professionals and stakeholders. Its aims? To build the world’s most successful cricket team and a painless, seamless home ticketing system.

Not wanting to be left behind, the lads will announce a tripartite agreement fostered between Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul at Camp Dravid. In which, Kohli gets the first dibs on picking his formats of preference until the World Cup. Of course, he picks all three, leaving Rohit and KL one format each. The Camp Dravid declaration also marks the formal announcement that the Indian men’s team will never play the three together in any eleven in the foreseeable future. Arguments about two playing together will be settled by a triathlon race between the contenders. In case of an improbable tie, the coin toss settles it.

World tennis decides to give us a year of climbdowns and turnarounds. Novak Djokovic arrives in Australia with a vaccination certificate. Wimbledon gets off its high horse regarding Russian and Belarussian players. The US Open finally gives the media its tribune on Arthur Ashe, by getting rid of its uber-celebrity seating. Rafa Nadal wins the season ending championships and Fedalovic fans declare a long-lasting truce on social media. White noise levels dramatically fall.

Using the power of wishful thinking, dramatic developments await us. Of Formula 1 reaching a rare high moral ground, donating 30% of its revenues to clean energy and getting into discussions about a merger with Formula E. Even stranger things may happen. LIV Golf buys out the PGA Tour and relaunches the GetALiv PGA Tour, appointing Harry and Meghan as global ambassadors.

Regardless of what the sporting year brings, kind readers, here’s wishing it puts out its best for you.

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