Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Splendid performance by India in CWG' that was published in Newsband

Splendid performance by India in CWG

The Commonwealth Games has relevance as a stepping stone to greater sporting glory. At the Gold Coast in Australia, India won 66 medals and improved on the haul of 64 from the 2014 edition at Glasgow. The number of golds rose from 15 to 26. In wrestling, weightlifting, shooting, boxing, badminton and particularly table tennis, India dominated.

Five-time world boxing champion Mary Kom, two-time Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar, world champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, 2016 world junior javelin champion Neeraj Chopra and teen shooting sensations Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala produced splendid performances to clinch gold. In badminton, in women’s final featuring P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, and the emergence of some doubles combinations were the high points. From the table tennis arena, India won a medal in all seven events. There was a historic gold in the women’s singles for Manika Batra. The 22-year-old Delhi player returned with four medals, including two golds.  

The Indian contingent, led by veteran M.C. Mary Kom, kept the tri-colour flying high at the Commonwealth Games 2018. It was indeed a memorable show with many takeaways.

But there was one ugly incident too where A.V. Rakesh Babu and K.T. Irfan were packed off from the Games for violation of the ‘no needle’ policy after needles were found in their rooms.

However, India could improve upon its 2014 tally of 11 gold, 10 silver and 36 bronze medals. But India should certainly try to register a better show in hockey where the men’s team will defend its Asian Games title, and automatically qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. There is room for improvement, especially in track and field events. This ' golden period ' should extend to Olympics in which Indian performance has been traditionally very pathetic and unsatisfactory

In all, the performance of players, the dexterity with which they participated, the thrill and excitement culminating in the rich haul of medals of which Indian players became recipients is superb by any standards. In this refreshing hour, what is conspicuously absent is a statement from the Union Sports Minister on what led to such improved performance, how he plans to motivate players for similar performances in future besides his action plan to rope in and tap the hidden talent in many young in rural India. At this stage support and encouragement from government will have greater impact to improve performance than street side celebrations.