Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 3 : What are the key challenges in Indian sport development? While we have seen a growing intent to take sports to the centre stage in India's progress, a consolidated systems-driven approach can further guide this intent. This understanding led to the development of a benchmarking report titled 'Sports-Forward Nation'. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the Sports and Society Accelerator have curated this report with the intent to structure key drivers to fuel India's sporting ambitions.
The 'Sports Forward Nation' report identifies four pillars for the growth of the sports ecosystem. These include commerce, technology, performance and societal impact. Each of these pillars has been exhaustively researched based on key opinions from industry leaders and forms the base for a cohesive ten-step roadmap to build an ecosystem that drives sport forward and positions it as a key driver of national progress.
'Sports-Forward Nation' documents the gains made, and approaches used within the Indian sporting ecosystem, while suggesting the importance of ensuring that sports and physical activity are well integrated and accessible from the grassroots to elite sport. Case studies show the significant movement towards commercially viable sports competitions, a growing sports technology business landscape, strides in performance initiatives across stakeholders, and work done within communities and sports for society, a RCB press release said.
"To see India as a Sports-Forward Nation would mean a lot to all of us sportspersons, and it is all about the journey to becoming a sporting powerhouse. Domestic cricket, the Indian Premier League (IPL) and now the Women's Premier League (WPL) are very good examples of how cricket as a sport has benefitted from an overall robust system. Domestic women players are now earning to perform independently and are also getting the right exposure with tournaments such as the WPL," said RCB Women's skipper Smriti Mandhana.

"Similarly, it would be inspiring to witness stories like these coming from across other disciplines as well. I am happy to be part of this movement with RCB to work towards making sports a priority across India. I want to see more girls playing sports by choice and finding success. If we can share our success and use sports as a driver for positive change, it would account for something that truly makes an impact," Mandhana added.
"For us at RCB, we have a clear objective to be centre-stage participants in the growth story of Indian sports. While we have gained insights on what has worked for us as an IPL team across commercial and sporting aspects, we feel the need to bring together our industry to own this journey as a collective. A Sports-Forward Nation with an ecosystem that runs like clockwork is a dream we all aspire for, and India is on course for that. But to become a champion nation in sport, we need to provide our athletes with the right environment for development," said Rajesh Menon, Chief Operating Officer, RCB
"We hope that the Made of Bold sports development programme and platforms like the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit that have led to the Sports Forward Nation publication, act as examples of our commitment to actively participate in sports development," he added.
Sports-Forward Nation' underlines the importance of sport as a nation-building component and a shared belief that a roadmap to 2047 and a Viksit Bharat would be one where sport is a part of every Indian's life in some way, shape, or form.
The origins of this report date to the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit held in November 2023 which was India's first truly international intellectual forum to discuss sport from a holistic lens. Basis insights gained here from industry stalwarts including the likes of India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, Olympians Abhinav Bindra and Neeraj Chopra, cricketers - Brendon McCullum, Smriti Mandhana as well as key administrators like IPL Chairman, Arun Dhumal.