NEW DELHI: Star Indian batter and former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Virat Kohli has called for a collective effort to transform India into a “Sports Forward Nation” by 2036. Speaking at the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit, Kohli emphasised the need for a holistic approach that goes beyond infrastructure and includes educating the public about sports to build a robust sporting culture.
“We are working towards India becoming a Sports Forward Nation by 2036. As I said, we have the vision, we have the groundwork happening today. I think it’s the collective responsibility of everyone who gets involved. Not just the infrastructure, not just the people who are going to infuse the money, not just the athletes, but people who want to be educated about the sport,” Kohli said.
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“We don’t need the celebration and fanaticism, we need the education of the sport. The education around the sport, for us as a country, is also very important. Once the education around sport takes place, the experience will be 10 times what it is today and that will be a big step towards us being a sports forward nation.”
Kohli also highlighted the growing prominence of women’s sports in India, acknowledging the progress made over the past few years. He praised women athletes for being their own catalysts, drawing attention to themselves through their performances.
“They were their own catalysts and kind of put the attention onto them. I literally saw it happening like in a time span of 6-7 years. The way they started playing, you could see that belief and then people started engaging in that a lot. And eventually, it got to a place where, you know, the commercials became better, money was being infused into the women’s game, and then you have the WPL,” Kohli commented.
He stressed that developing a sporting culture requires a collective effort, and that women’s sports should be an integral part of that vision.
“Looking at men for the improvement of sport in any country, it has to be a collective. Sports culture includes everyone, and women’s sport is a massive part of it. We have so much data in women’s sports, not just cricket but all the others. We are creating individual activities over the year in tennis, badminton, wrestling, boxing. So, I think it’s definitely heading in the right direction and it needs more backing and more and more infrastructure to be developed,” Kohli shared.
