It's 2025, and with the arrival of this new year, we get a whole set of new questions (or old ones giftwrapped in new forms), especially with no major multi-sport events happening this year.
ESPN India looks at eight major questions that need to be answered in 2025:
Will the Hockey India League give Indian hockey the boost it's looking for?
(Anish Anand)
The revamped Hockey India League has started after a gap of seven years, and this time includes a women's tournament. The first time it ran, for five years from 2013-17, the Indian men's hockey team benefited immensely thanks to the quality of it.
While the men's team are in a good space, the new HIL will certainly give a boost to the women's game. After making waves at the Tokyo Games, the national women's team failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics, signaling lack of quality and depth. Sharing the space with world class athletes and coaches will no doubt have an impact on the players, but the bigger development will likely happen in the long run after multiple seasons. Just like it did with the men's team, who eventually won back-to-back Olympic bronze medals in Tokyo and Paris.
For HIL to make its impact on the women's team, it needs to increase the number of teams from four to six. The teams need to attract the world's best and pay them what they deserve while also giving playing opportunities to India youngsters. The current women's HIL is a good start but hopefully, the ultimate result will be seen at LA 2028.
Will India qualify for the Asian Cup?
(Sunaadh Sagar)
Let's put it this way: if India don't qualify for the Asia Cup, resignations ought to be demanded - and not just that of head coach Manolo Marquez. The AIFF is a federation with grandiose plans of eventually qualifying for a 48-team FIFA World Cup, but the first step in that is ensuring you reach a 24-team Asian Cup. There are those who will point to India's dismal record in making the tournament proper, having only qualified in five of their 14 attempts (36%).
Yet, most of those missed attempts came when the tournament had 8/10/12/16-team editions, and India is good enough to qualify for the 24-team editions, as they did in 2019 and 2023. On paper, 126th ranked India should be favourites to top a group of Hong Kong (ranked 155), Singapore (ranked160) and Bangladesh (ranked 185). Yet, this is a Hong Kong managed by Ashley Westwood (who already defeated India with Afghanistan and has Hong Kong on a six-game winning run - their best since 1985), a Bangladesh featuring Hamza Choudhury of Leicester City in the Premier League, and a Singapore team that is fresh of a semifinal appearance at the ASEAN Championship which has raised hopes.
Yet, Manolo Marquez has six games in which to top this group, and an occasional stumble may not prove costly. India's players ought to have understood his tactics by now, and they should be able to top this group and qualify for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup - if everything goes smoothly and the coach is supported by the federation, GPS vests and all.
Will Indian badminton rediscover top form on the BWF Tour?
(Zenia D'Cunha)
Short answer: Indian badminton has to.
Long answer: Its time Indian badminton took the next big step - big titles on the BWF Tour. That India has the requisite talent and the support system for badminton is evident from the regular success at big stages - multi-sport Games and World Championships. (Paris 2024 was a forgettable exception.) But if there's one thing that's lacking lately, particularly in singles, it's consistent BWF World Tour titles. The higher rung of Indian badminton (who play the Super 500-and-higher tournaments week-in and week-out) have little silverware to show for all their caliber. Except the path-breaking pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, no active Indian players have won major trophies on tour in its current format. PV Sindhu is a bona fide star and a former world champion, yet her biggest BWF title is a Super 500 won in 2022. Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy are yet to win a title bigger than Super 500.
In a year without a major multi-sport competition, the BWF Tour is a good goal to focus on. It's the natural next step for Indian badminton's ever-rising international profile. Badminton is one of the most challenging sports with mandatory tournaments all over the globe week-in and week-out (just ask Viktor Axelsen) hence early calendar management and goal setting will be key.
On a broader scale, 2025 should also be a platform for the young Indian talent to make its mark. From teenagers Anmol Kharb and Tanvi Sharma to the second rung of men's singles (and doubles who make the cut at big events but don't get past the big names), this is the year to make the big push. With a big change in coaching (hello again, Tan Kim Her) and more focus on weekly tournament, this is the year for sustained BWF success.
What does para-sport in India need this year?
(Sunaadh Sagar)
The first ask is simple enough - the basics. Accessibility is an afterthought in many of India's sporting facilities, with perhaps the nadir being the National Para-Athletic Championships in 2021 - the qualifier for the Tokyo Paralympics taking place with the aid of mobile flashlights and car headlights. The apathy continues to exist, and Paralympics Committee of India head, Devendra Jhajaria has made it his mission to ensure that stadiums and sporting facilities around India have accessible facilities like ramps and washrooms.
The second is also simple enough - recognition. The fact that there is only one Khel Ratna from a record-breaking Paralympic contingent that included seven golds and 29 medals is pitiful. The likes of Harvinder Singh, ESPN's Para-Athlete of the Year (male), Yogesh Kathuniya, Nishad Kumar, Suhas Yathiraj, Sharad Kumar, Preethi Pal, Sundar Singh Gurjar have become multiple medallists at the Paralympics but missed out on India's highest sporting honour (Khel Ratna), as it stands. Beyond the award's fiscal benefits, it's the lack of recognition that arguably stings more, as these para-athletes have triumphed despite the system. The least the system can do is at the very least, afford them the proper recognition - one would struggle to find those who have done more for India's sporting glory.
Can shooting build on 2024 and target more in 2026?
(Zenia D'Cunha)
The answer to this is a resounding yes. Shooting is a sport that has constantly delivered for Indian, across age group and away from the multi-sport events spotlight, and there's every reason to believe this is continue with the boost of three Olympic medals in 2024.
Already at the ongoing National Championship, Indians shooters are scoring big numbers and there are newer faces on the podium going against established names, reiterating just how tough the internal competition is. A certain Saurabh Chaudhary even managed a new national record in men's 10m air pistol qualification (Final result awaited.) There is also much to look forward to on the international your once the season begins, chief among them being how double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker fares when she makes her return to the range after a much-deserved break.
The one aspect for improvement in 2025 could be the shotgun discipline, where India does not enjoy the same success as in rifle and pistol. The talent is evident here too, but there are many more variables in outdoor shooting which makes it erratic, and this could be a goal for the national federation.
Will Neeraj Chopra hit 90m?
(Anirudh Menon)
For long now, Neeraj Chopra has been chasing that 90m milestone. Until 2024, it was like a personal milestone that he simply wanted to reach, an arbitrary throwers' mark that he wanted to prove wasn't beyond. Now, though, it's become much more of a base need.
Arshad Nadeem cracked 90m twice en-route that stunning Olympic gold and Anderson Peters showed he's back to his best by crossing 90m as he won the Lausanne Diamond League. On both occasions, Neeraj finished second, and on both occasions, he missed the mark by about half-a-metre. No 90m, no gold... and Neeraj Chopra hates his silvers (let's not even get to bronzes).
So now it's an existential need: crack the 90m mental barrier, ensure he can challenge Nadeem and Peters in 2025. Now coached by the great Jan Zelezny (world record holder at 98.48m, he's crossed the 90m mark 34 times in competition), this is as good a year as any for the great man to hit his target.
How does Indian chess build on a massive 2024?
(Aaditya Narayan)
Two world champions, a world championship bronze medallist, and the most dominant performance ever seen at a Chess Olympiad - 2024 is a year that Indian chess would find very hard to even come close to matching, let alone surpassing. There will be two massive focusses in 2025 - continuing the on-board success that 2024 brought, while also growing the sport in the country, capitalizing on the wave generated by Dommaraju Gukesh's world champion status.
Five spots for the 2026 Candidates tournament, for the right to be Gukesh's challenger, will come through the FIDE World Cup and the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament. Arjun Erigaisi had a terrific year in 2024, and will look to build on it, while the likes of R Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, Nihal Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani will all look to compete at the elite level once again. On the women's side, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agarwal will look to get closer to grandmaster status, while also being able to compete at the big stages against the best players.
Off the board, All India Chess Federation president Nitin Narang told ESPN that India will host some big tournaments in 2025, and that they won't be in Chennai, given how the sport already has such a culture in that city. The AICF wants to take the sport to other centres like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, which are big enough cities and where the chess culture needs these big world events, unlike Chennai, where the conveyor belt of elite players is in as good health as it's ever been.
Can Indian sports untangle all the red tape?
(Anirudh Menon)
You know the answer to this as well as I do, but what is there to do but hope?
The Wrestling "Nationals" held in Bengaluru in December 2024 were a farce: the Federation themselves called it a "private" tournament, wrestlers gained no ranking points, Railways (the most decorated wrestling team in the nation) didn't send a team, and there was a general air of confusion around the wrestlers. None of that - especially that air of confusion - is conducive to athletes performing at their best.
The worst part? The WFI (who are not official recognizes by the Sports ministry) is just one of the bodies undergoing intense turmoil. The Indian Olympic Association has a civil war on between its president and its board members. The boxing federation is courting all parties in the global battle between World Boxing and the International Boxing Association... and only one those two are backed by the International Olympic Council (WB). The All India Tennis Association is entangled in a legal tussle with its star player(s).
These are just the headline acts -- chaos exists on some level at most sporting associations and it's very obviously not a good thing. Stability is the need of the hour, and its high time the red tap that's stifling Indian sport gets untangled.