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This awful tragedy was followed by the organisational farce of pigeons, monkeys and Delhi air of the India Open badminton. And the latest is news of pole-vaulters, including national champion and record holder, being asked to get off a train as they were carrying their competition poles and left arguing for five hours with railway officials.

Ugh.

Instead of continuing to tabulate the usual-day-in-the-life-of-Indian sport, what if the rest of the year provide with a turnaround? Gave us rosy headlines and a sign ahead of better things to come. While wishing athletes, teams and coaches the best of luck and many slices of fortune and victories, here’s some alternative Dream Headlines for the rest of 2026.

A Pan-Indian CWG2030

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) reaches out to the Commonwealth Games Federation to declare that while it is not about to abandon and thus totally sabotage the Commonwealth and Para Commonwealth Games 2030, the Games are going pan-India. CWG2030 becomes a multi-city Games. Ahmedabad will get athletics, and the opening and closing ceremonies. The rest of the sport is to take place across the rest of India. In a replica of India’s once well-circulated but suddenly vanished plans of a multi-city Olympics bid for 2036, the CWG2030 will spread its 10 disciplines/ sports countrywide. Shooting in Delhi, hockey in Bhubaneswar, badminton and gymnastics in Hyderabad, swimming in Bengaluru, boxing in Pune, squash in Chennai. The tenth sport – finalised depending on senior international medal count between now and December 2028 – gets to choose its host city.

AIFF gives owners their league

In a sudden turn of events following ISL2026, AIFF hands over control of ISL to the clubs that had asked for it – with promotion and relegation being mandatory. This dramatic decision is the result of an Introspection Summit where AIFF accepts that ceding “all commercial rights… to improve, popularise and promote the game of football throughout India from the grassroots to the professional level” to a company FSDL (IMG-Reliance) for 15 years only in exchange for annual cash handouts was a bad idea. Better to hand it over to the country’s clubs that have serious skin and put serious cash in the game. It ensures the legacy clubs can be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the first quarter of the 21st century and player salaries can be course-corrected once contracts lapse. The AIFF now turns its good hearts and clean focus elsewhere – nurturing the I-league clubs to strengthen the feeder system, encouraging the growth of youth leagues around the country and grassroots development.

India2036 bid boosted by its anti-doping add-on

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) receives an email from an “eminent Indian personality” (EIP) who wants India’s bid for the 2036 Olympics to be directly linked to committing 0.1 percent of their proposed Olympic budget (i.e. ₹64 crore out of the current estimate of ₹64,000 crore) to year-round dope-testing. The IOC welcomed the idea. NADA, forever complaining about lack of funds for testing at state and national level, is beside itself in excitement over the number ₹64 crore. India’s syringe and needle manufacturers’ industry announces it will happily step up production by the tens of thousands. “Our bad image in Indian sport needs to change”.

The union sports ministry welcomes these first steps towards the abandonment of India’s shamefully-regular podium finish in the annual WADA report. The IOC doesn’t reveal the EIP’s name but leading candidates are: sports-enthusiast Bollywood stars, globally-connected former sports administrators and tech bros.

The zeitgeist prompts new Laureus award category

The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation institutes a new award along with its annual glittering night. It is world sport’s ‘Golden Raspberry’ and meant to identify a powerful individual or body whose actions succeeds in dumping fetid garbage on sport, the act of sport, practitioners and fans worldwide. This new award category is called the Shill of the Year aka the Shilly and/or (rhyming slang) the Billy. The first-ever Shilly/Billy goes to FIFA and president Gianni Infantino. This for its oleaginous new FIFA Peace Prize and its first recipient, Donald Trump. In a dramatic aside, the Court of Arbitration for Sport hauls FIFA and three North American host nations to court over the ticket pricing of the 2026 World Cup.

Cricket gives women their due

After the ICC is named and shamed as the most unserious global body of a big-money sport, cricket turns a new leaf. Or rather grows a new forest. Cricket’s women – administrators, media executives, technocrats, players, umpires, support staffers – take control of the game’s operations and administration. The lopsided revenue distribution model is scrapped for a more equitable series of dispersals. The draw of ICC events will be done on live streaming. If India and Pakistan don’t make the same group, the draw remains as it is. The exiled Afghanistan women’s cricketers and their right to form a team is recognised. The Taliban are sent emails to check if they’ll talk to any women.

The MCC is asked to formulate a law under its Spirit of Cricket section – it’s called the handshake clause. Any team, male or female, refusing to shake hand with the opponents before and after a game will forfeit the match regardless of the result. Brand experts reach out to the men’s teams promising them an image makeover that is in sync to what the world is responding to – largeness of heart along with the tattoos.