Gujarat’s current sports policy was released on 10th March 2022 and featured a five-year roadmap. The sports policy was construed by the Sports Youth and Cultural Affairs Department and the Sports Authority of Gujarat (SAG).
This longitudinal plan highlights a pathway that characterizes a Long-Term Athlete Development Program. The structure emphasises improving performances at the grassroots level and supporting the players all the way to national and international excellence.
GRASS AND ROOTS
The sports policy illustrates a pyramid. At its base, the focus is on colleges and schools. Currently, ~40 schools are affiliated with the SAG. Moreover, the Swarnim Gujarat Sports University in Vadodara district is only the second sports university established by any state, the first being Tamil Nadu. The aspiring athlete then progresses to showcase their skills at the district level. The sports policy has indeed delivered on these grounds, as currently the state has 41 District Sports Centres, one in every major city of the state.
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Before moving on to the next tier, the In-school scheme, Shaktidoot Scheme, and the Khel Mahakumbh warrant a discussion though they are briefly outlined in the sports policy. The In-school scheme is for students aged 6 to 13. The Shaktidoot Scheme is for U-20 players who have demonstrated remarkable progress in Olympic or Commonwealth sports, or in high-standard international tournaments. The players under this scheme are eligible for a cash prize of INR 25 lakhs if they have the potential to make it to the Olympics, or with INR 2.5-5 lakhs annually if they have showcased their talents based on a point system. Moreover, the players are also insured medically under this scheme.
In 2024-25, INR 147 lakhs were allotted to 13 female athletes of the state. This financial surge is a result of Gujarat’s annual sports budget, which was a mere INR 2.5 crore in 2002 and now stands at a massive INR 484 crores. Ankita Raina, Elavenil Valarivaran, Maana Patel, Sarita Gayakwad, and Bhavina Patel are some notable female athletes who have emerged successfully through the assistance of these schemes.
The results of these schemes have been translated into the Khel Mahakumbh, Asia’s most extensive grassroots talent identification program, which was launched in 2010. In 2025, a record 71.30 lakh participants registered for the event across 39 sports and age groups. INR 45 crores was the total prize pool for the event. In the second week of January 2026, Surat is set to host a Mini Khel Mahakumbh, an event featuring 4500 U-11 athletes competing in various athletic events.
Another encouraging prospect stemming from the Khel Mahakumbh is the Gujarat State Table Tennis Association’s organization. In the 2024-25 cycle, the GSTT hosted 6 events, receiving 609 participants. In the 2025-26 cycle, with only three events, 661 participants have registered.
PLUCKED FLOWERS?
At the taluka, district, and state levels, Gujarat’s athletes have consistently shown promise. However, it is after this tier that the state hasn’t seen the translation of its mass participants or winners into the potential they show. According to the sports policy, after the district-level programs, the athletes move on to the Centres of Excellence (COEs).
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This is currently represented by the Swami Vivekananda Talent Development Centre, whose selection criteria include the Top 3 winners across different sports in the Khel Mahakumbh, state players who represented the country in International tournaments, and those backed or recommended by veteran coaches of the sport. According to the sports policy, it plans to have a total of eight such COEs by 2027.
The Khelo India Youth Games, which began in 2018, is a tussle between the best athletes representing each Indian state. The results of Gujarat in these games highlight that, despite an extensive grassroots talent initiative program, the competitive standards are certainly lacking a lustre to make a mark nationally. In the seven editions of the KIYG held thus far, Gujarat has finished within the Top 10 only twice, and in its latest edition, it finished outside the Top 20. The results are more surprising given that the state has over 30 Khelo India Centres. It is imperative to ask a simple question: if there is mass participation and financial support, which aspect of the developmental programs needs fine-tuning?
At the top of the sports policy’s pyramid are the High Performance Centres. These are specifically designed for elite athletes. As per the sports policy, four of these are planned, one of which will be exclusively for para-athletes. This tier also sees players strive to reap the benefits of the Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS), the National Sports Development Fund (which helps players train under international coaches), and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) schemes. In the latter, Gujarat has only one nodal/regional centre called the Netaji Subhash Western Regional Centre in Gandhinagar.
TREES OF MIGHT
While the question of athletes’ potential hovers, Gujarat has certainly delivered in developing sporting infrastructure. As the official host of the 2030 Commonwealth Games, Ahmedabad has the spotlight after several limelights. The Narendra Modi Stadium, home to the Gujarat Titans and the venue of the 2023 Cricket World Cup final, is the world’s largest cricket stadium with a capacity of 1,32,000. But several other facilities are being developed or are under construction to make Ahmedabad the country’s sporting infrastructure hub. Below is a comprehensive list of major projects that will play a key role in the Commonwealth Games or, if successful, the 2036 Summer Olympics.
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave (SVPSE): Developed around the Narendra Modi Stadium, this INR 4600 crore facility will comprise two sports enclaves. It will feature (but is not restricted to) a central urban park (heat sink), a football stadium, an indoor multipurpose arena, an aquatic stadium, and a tennis stadium. The entire facility will run completely on renewable energy by 2028.
- Ring of Unity: A facility of 150 diameters with a capacity of 5000-17000, which can also host a multitude of art and cultural activities.
- Veer Savarkar Sports Complex (VSSC): This stunning marvel is a sporting facility featuring six blocks: a convertible aquatic stadium of Olympic standards, a Centre for Sports Excellence, an indoor multisport arena, a community sports centre, and an outdoor sporting zone for tennis, basketball, warm-up swimming pools, and volleyball. A total of INR 825 crores was spent on its making, and more features of this complex can be read here.
- Athletes’ Village: An extension of the SVPSE, an Olympic village is planned in Sughad, Koteshwar, and Bhat. These will have retractable seating for 5000-6000 and an indoor shooting facility.
- EKA Arena: Formerly known as The Arena by TransStadia, this multi-purpose stadium has a capacity of 20,000. Though its primary configuration is of a football stadium, it has also hosted table tennis and kabaddi events. The 2016 Kabaddi World Cup, the 2019 AFC Intercontinental Cup, the 2022 National Games, and several matches of the Pro Kabaddi League were held here.
- Gujarat Police Academy Karai – A state-of-the-art indoor multi-facility for hosting Commonwealth Games, including shooting, swimming, rugby, triathlon, weightlifting, and several other athletic events, will be developed across 143 acres.
- Sabarmati Sports Hub – On both the east and west ends of the iconic Riverfront, two sports parks (Shahpur and Paldi) will have training facilities for athletes. A water barrage will also be installed with the prospect of hosting water sports.
- South West Ahmedabad Sports Arena (SWASA) – This arena will be spread across the areas of Manipur, Godhawi, Nidhrad, Kaneti, and Saij. Apart from hosting archery, table tennis, boxing, taekwondo, wrestling, fencing, judo, and skateboarding, it will also provide residential facilities for players, coaches, and trainers.
- Vastral Sports Complex – The sole venue of the Commonwealth Games in the eastern part of Ahmedabad spans 11 acres. It comprises training and practice facilities for tennis, football, swimming, a running track, table tennis, and an indoor sports arena.
- Facilities specific to each sport – Kensville Club (golf), Shivrajpur Beaches in Dwarka (beach volleyball), Statue of Unity (archery), Pethapur (Cycling), Gift City (athletics, marathon, beach volleyball), Sports Authority of India Training Centre (Hockey), Sports Authority of Gujarat Arena (handball, basketball), Sanskardham Educational Institute (Combat Sports), Gujarat University Tennis Stadium (tennis).
Olympics 2036
Gujarat govt will select 2000 children of 9 to 11 years age and train them for next 12 years
🔹35 Sports complexes & 10 Sports academies will be set up
🔹1.70 lakh rupees to be spent after each child every year
🔹for their stay, food, school fees, uniform, tools.
— The Index of Gujarat (@IndexofGujarat) October 14, 2024
Apart from the ones listed above, the sports policy plans to map the city to promote its sporting culture by providing easy access to its facilities. A 7-kilometre-long beautification project, themed around sports, is planned along the route connecting Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar, the state’s capital. Sports complexes are under construction in areas like Naroda, Ranip, and Nikol. Indoor sports complexes are now functional under Vakil Saheb Bridge in Bopal and Hebatpur.
Sachin Tendulkar’s SRT10 Academy has joined hands with Altevol Sports Academy to establish a high-performance training centre for cricket and tennis at Shanku’s Farm near Nirma University. In addition, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has planned 47 gyms, 27 playgrounds, and several sports centres in Kankaria, Maninagar, Shyamji Krishna, SIMS railway bridge, Ranip under-bridge, Thaltej, Gota, Jodhpur, and Chandkheda.
MORE THAN A SEASON’S BLOSSOM
The city has been rewarded for its upgradation and for having a sporting infrastructure in line with the sports policy. It will host the 2026 Asian Weightlifting Championships, the 2026 Para Archery Asia Cup, the 2026 AFC U17 Qualifiers, and the 2029 World Police and Fire Games. Narendra Somani, President of the Hotels and Restaurants Association of Ahmedabad, has said, “We will need an additional 4,000 rooms in the five-star category and around 6,000 rooms in two- and three-star hotels. At least six top-end hotels are already under construction, and many more are likely to follow. At the very least, this will create 50,000 new jobs – and the number could be much higher.”
As per the sports policy, by 2030, Gujarat plans to train 10,000 volunteers and create over 30,000 jobs linked to the Games. After Ahmedabad, Rajkot, and Surat, a fourth international airport in Dholera will further ease the commute for players. In Ahmedabad, metro and BRTS lines are planned to link the major sports complexes, such as SVPSE and VSSC.
As hosts, Gujarat was at the forefront, hosting several events outside cricket in 2025. Some of the most notable ones include the 2025 Commonwealth Weightlifting Qualifiers (Ahmedabad), the 2025 Asian Aquatics Championships (Ahmedabad), the 74th Senior National Basketball Championships (Bhavnagar), the 2nd International Shotokan Karate Championships (Vadodara), the National Senior Women’s Handball Championships (Bhuj), the National Women’s Archery Tournament (Ambaji), and the 7th Tennis Premier League (Ahmedabad).
GUJARAT’S SPORTS POLICY – YAY OR NAY?
Gujarat has been punching above its weight if we are to have a bird’s eye view of its sports policy. To compete with global standards, the sporting infrastructure has clearly caught the world’s gaze. It is indeed beneficial if the venue of an international multisport event is one that produces champion athletes. However, one must not forget that that is not a mandatory requirement.
While some states might routinely produce quality athletes, they might not be backed financially by their own government, might not have the capacity to build humongous facilities, might not guarantee international legitimacy, might not have the potential to replan an entire city, might not have the commercial value beyond sports; all of which, Ahmedabad doesn’t just guarantee, but has evidently delivered in the past decade. In its next move, the city is set to foreground sustainability, inclusion, and diversity at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2026 and 2028.
As for the sports policy, if the eventual goal is to nurture and see players outshine themselves, then the state certainly needs to invest in various areas. These include increasing the coaching standards in the PE Teachers’ Capacity Building Program, developing rigorous standards for the accreditation of coaches, improving technicalities through consistent training programs, developing an archival database of all sporting events held in the 21st century along with the statistics of each athlete, ensuring to instill a civic sense to keep the sporting facilities tidy, and reporting the states’ performance in streaming media with positive critique.
The trio of box cricket, pickleball, and an adjoining cafe is a phenomena spread like wildfire in the city. At the heart of it, beyond an encouraging sports policy, a lot of athletes and sports seek the support and a fanbase which goes beyond cricket in a box, sugar-free coffee, and a trending fashion of passing time.
Overall, Gujarat can currently be seen as a state abuzz with strong potential to host top-tier events as the development aligns with the sports policy. But it still awaits the much-needed recognition as a factory of producing champion athletes, which, when made possible, would check all the boxes on its grocery list. It is as though the authorities need to reflect back on the then Chief Minister of the state, Narendra Modi’s slogan. ‘Khele te Khile’ (The one who plays, blossoms) became a catchy narrative in 2010; its time that the state realizes it again.
