Politicians often use sporting metaphors to put their point across during elections. Example: “A front-runner can always be on a sticky wicket if he lacks the knock-out punch.” It works the other way round too — sporting chatter is sprinkled on the language of politics. Example: “The new leadership tussle is expected to change the dressing room power equation and fuel palace intrigue.” In the months to come, politics and sports will remain in the national conversation, and will continue to draw from each other. 2024 is the year of general elections in India and the Paris Olympics. And since excellence in sports is made to look like a government’s report card on policy, planning, execution, and vision around the world, medals and votes have at least a notional connection. Around the time that EVMs will be beeping across the country in 2024, Indian cricket will be taking some big decisions. Before the T20 World Cup, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, mega stars who are in their mid-30s, are expected to deal with the anxiety of a politician on counting day. Hardik Pandya’s appointment as the new captain of Mumbai Indians has put a question mark over the T20I future of Rohit and Kohli. In some ways, cricket too has a federal structure. Beyond the central national team there are the 10 IPL state units with their own powerful regional satraps and state-level intra-party battles. The fans of TV drama Succession might want to keep an eye on the Mumbai Indians dressing room, where a similar leadership drama is expected to unfold. Elsewhere, after years of speculation, the highly successful franchise Chennai Super Kings could be doing the unthinkable and looking beyond M S Dhoni. 2024 would be the year when time would take a break at Chennai — with an epic chapter about to end and another set to begin. History at CSK will be divided into “Before Thala” and “After Thala” eras. But before continuing with the unending theatre called cricket, let’s take a look at the greatest sporting show of 2024: the high-stakes July-August Olympic Games in Paris. Looking back at Tokyo. At the last Olympics in Tokyo, India got one medal more than its highest-ever haul of six. Among the seven podium finishers was Neeraj Chopra’s javelin gold — the first time an Indian track and field athlete was seen on the top of the podium in a mainstream mass sport. Neeraj’s 87.85 m effort was India’s giant leap and, in a success-deprived country, the feel-good moment lasted for months. Neeraj was as popular as the top cricketers, the celebration of this individual Olympics triumph was on par with India’s two World Cup winning moments on the cricket field. With his long hair, soft features, and toothpaste-ad smile, Neeraj became the poster boy for a sustained sporting push by the government — with federations and private not-for-profit companies in side roles. The Haryana boy is the product of the system, a true homegrown champion. Neeraj was supported by the Sports Ministry’s Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS), a ‘labharthi’ government project that eliminated the middlemen between the benefactor and the beneficiary. But for a few pending flaws of audits, the scheme directly funds an athlete’s customised programs and provides extra financial aid for unanticipated requirements. The once all-powerful sports federations are mostly out of this process. For a nation whose five-decade-old track and field legacy was about missing bronze medals by Milkha Singh and P T Usha, targeting the Olympic podium had seemed like an overreach. But a non-profit brought in the all-important intervention of coaching and planning expertise at the right time, and the government footed the bills. Neeraj’s javelin gold showed the ambition wasn’t outrageous. .And talking about Paris After the record Olympic haul at Tokyo, there was more. The Hangzhou Asian Games this year saw another medal glut. India crossed the 100-medal mark for the first time. The medal count in sports like archery, athletics, and shooting spiked. There were medals in 18 sporting disciplines in the previous edition, this time it was 22. In track and field, the mother sport, there were first-time medals in women’s javelin, men’s steeplechase, men’s javelin, and decathlon. All the graphs headed north. As he did after the Olympics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would invite the Asian Games achievers to his home and give them a pep talk. He would say that Indian sport was headed in the right direction. By the time the Paris Games are declared open in July 2024, the Lok Sabha elections would have ended, and the country would have made its choice. If the BJP is back in power, Prime Minister Modi can be expected to be in touch with India’s Olympians in France — to applaud the medal winners and console the losers. Will Paris see another record-breaking show by India? The jury is still out on that one but there are several hopefuls. Carrying a billion hopes It will be a novel feeling indeed to head into the Olympics with an Indian as the favourite for gold in a track and field event. Neeraj will face off against the Germans Johannes Vetter, Thomas Rohler, and Andreas Hofmann, Anderson Peters of Grenada, and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem. Other Indian throwers — Kishore Jena, Manu D P, and Rohit Yadav — too are improving steadily. Who would have thought that one day India would be discussing a gold-silver possibility in javelin? Another athlete who is hungry enough for gold is the boxer Nikhat Zareen — and the Tokyo medallist Lovlina Borgohain isn’t quite done yet. In badminton, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will contend for gold in badminton’s toughest Top 8 across categories, and the big match temperament they showed in 2023 evokes excitement. It’s come late in life, but H S Prannoy isn’t one to let opportunities like the Olympics go easily, and remains a dark horse. India’s biggest roaring comeback at the Olympics can come from its young shooters, if the federation gets its selections right this time. Sift Kaur Samra and Rudrankksh Patil are just two of several names, who have gone toe to toe with the Chinese in the last two years. And golfer Aditi Ashok has unfinished business from her Tokyo fourth-place finish. Wrestler Antim Panghal has made a lot of noise recently, but will be judged on her Olympics showing; she does have the right amount of spunk to take on a challenge. On the whole, silent workers amongst the wrestlers and recurve archers can spring surprises, even though they have little to show in the lead-up. The men’s hockey team have secured qualification early this time, and look like they have a sturdy plan for the podium, better than last time’s bronze. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu is wracked by injuries, but is expected to go for broke. An Olympic-sized plan India winning medals at the world stage go a long way in amplifying the claim of the Modi government’s sporting vision. At the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai in October, Modi said hosting the Olympics was the country’s “age-old dream”. The hat had been thrown in the ring — and India was officially a contender for the 2036 Olympics. Though the host city is yet to be decided, Ahmedabad is the obvious frontrunner. A year after Modi was sworn in as PM in 2014, the construction of a 1,00,000-plus-capacity stadium had commenced in the city. Modi, in the company of Presidents and Prime Ministers, has made several appearances at the sprawling facility. The IPL and World Cup finals have been played at the Modi stadium. The city also hosted the multi-discipline National Games last year, an extravaganza event that had a nationally televised glitzy opening ceremony, and all the trappings of a micro-Olympics. India as the host of the Olympics was probably always part of the Modi government’s grand sporting plan. Cricket’s Game of Thrones It was also at Ahmedabad’s Modi stadium that Indian cricket had its biggest heartbreak — October 19, 2023 could not become April 2, 2011. After their majestic march to the final, Rohit’s men couldn’t clear cricket’s traditional high hurdle — Australia. The team that was just a game away from being crowned the modern-day Invincibles would now go down in history as one that tried hard. Rohit was expected to break India’s long-running ICC events jinx, but couldn’t. When Virat lost his captaincy, one of the reasons for the change at the top was India’s inability to win a World Cup. So what now? Will Rohit get another shot at the World T20, or will it be Hardik who will lead a young side in the United States and the West Indies in June? There is a precedent to consider. Back in 2007, Indian cricket took a punt on a young captain in Dhoni. Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Rahul Dravid were rested, and the 26-year-old from Ranchi with a Tarzan haircut was put in charge of a team with several talented 20-somethings. It worked, India returned with both the silverware and a captain who would win them another World Cup in 2011. There are questions, though. Is Hardik a Dhoni? Don’t Rohit-Rahul Dravid deserve one more chance? These difficult questions will have to be dealt with in 2024 — and the answers will decide the future of Indian cricket. What about Dhoni, though? Will he finally walk away from cricket in 2024? Will the recluse disappear into his cave in Ranchi? It is unlikely — the knee might be dodgy but the mind remains alert to cricket’s millions of possibilities. Dhoni can return as coach or mentor at CSK. There may be a bigger role for him in Indian cricket. He could be cast as the margdarshak. After all, as we saw at the top of this piece, sports too can borrow ideas from politics. Tomorrow: Science outlook and the milestones reached in 2023
