ALTHOUGH India has started to witness the emergence of Sports as a Business over the last few years, the true paradigmatic shift is set to happen over the next couple of years. With the Hockey World Cup, IPL 3 (making a triumphant return home), and of course the CWG 2010 set to take shape, 2010 (and with the Cricket World Cup and IPL 4, 2011) will forever define Indian Sports, not just in terms of the events, but in terms of the evolution of infrastructure, capability, and mindsets across numerous demographics.
The next couple of years taken together are more than likely to be seminal years in the annals of Sports in India, especially 2010. It is also likely that 2010 will be a landmark year globally across various sports, including but not limited to tennis, golf, and boxing.
2010 will further define the legacies of two of the greatest athletes of all time: Roger Federer and Tiger Woods. While the former now needs to show the world that he is still unrivalled in the majors, and in the process will look at setting a benchmark that no one is likely to reach, the other must recover from an off-field scarring, and an on-field sub-par season, to reemerge as the man who defined the terms performance, mental fortitude, iron will, and steely calm. Roger’s task is somewhat easier as much of the hard work has been done, but one can rest assured that the hunger is nowhere close to abating. With the chance to trump a still struggling Nadal, and the younger and less consistent competition in Murray, Del Potro and Djokovic, this year is an opportunity for Federer to add one or more Grand Slams to his collection before the rigors of winning seven grueling rounds become too difficult. Keeping in mind the 2012 Olympics on grass in London, Federer has much to play for.
Tiger on the other hand must exorcise many ghosts before he hits the reality of the golf course and the flesh and blood competition. Nothing succeeds like success, and the ability to return to form amidst a crisis he is unused to will define his strength of character, and also return golf to prominence and the main stream. A major without Tiger is like the Fifa World Cup without Brazil: they may not always win, but they more likely than not will make the event an experience to remember. Winning consistently would also be a good way of deflecting the negative publicity, and showing the world that he is still the premier athlete on this planet.
The Fifa World Cup is of course around the corner, and South Africa gets a chance to play host to an even bigger show than IPL 2. India having a huge fan base for the EPL, La Liga, and of course the Euro, the World Cup is likely to spark huge viewership among Indians as well as collateral events surrounding the tournament itself.
This could also be a big year for Boxing. It’s not often that the two greatest athletes of the time square off in contact sports, but it seems that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight should happen in 2010, and it would be the biggest and highest grossing fight perhaps in the history of Boxing. It will be a grand spectacle in and of itself, and when you throw in two extremely well-rounded and colorful personalities who are also the greatest boxers of their generation, it augurs well for the sport of Boxing. Whether or not this fight generates much interest in India is anyone’s guess, but with the World Series of Boxing set to commence soon, any fillip that Boxing gets will eventually permeate the Indian audiences, and help boost a sport that until recently had been left for dead.
In India of course, the Hockey World Cup should also serve to revive a once proud sport that has seen tough times in the recent past. Many tout Hockey’s potential, and with India’s rich (but recently forgettable) Hockey heritage a strong performance by the host team will help revitalize a sport that could also spawn a professional sports league similar to Soccer and Cricket. The Indian audiences are likely to have a larger and more diverse appetite for Sport, and Hockey could fit right into one of the slots. One could say the World Cup is a make or break situation for the sport, at least to a large extent.
And then, there is the CWG 2010. The Big Kahuna of them all, the games will define the future of Sport in India. Interestingly, this will be less due to the expectation that they will be a success: truth be told, the Commonwealth Games rarely ever are. What they will do however, is change the entire infrastructure and awareness landscape of Sport in Delhi especially, but in India as a whole. With the kind of facilities that Delhi will now have, as well as the training that Indian athletes have been receiving, along with the new-found focus on logistics and crucial supplementary factors such as doping, Sport in India will be firmly etched in the mind of the average reader, viewer, participant, or sponsor. Not only will Delhi now be able to host global events in a variety of disciplines, it will also be able to showcase the vastly improved skills of Indian athletes in future. Improvements in infrastructure and other ancillary necessities will also then spread to other metropolises within India.
For an event that has been maligned as much as the CWG 2010 has been, one should not overlook the benefits that the Games will bring to India in 2010. Without a doubt, they will be the biggest event India will likely host, barring the till-now unlikely scenario that it manages to win a bid to the Olympics some time in the distant future. The seismic effect CWG 2010 and the other events in India, as well as the global storylines have on Sport in India will make this year unprecedented in its scope and scale. Hold on to your seats, and prepare to be dazzled.
