What a sport is

Both Smriti Mandhana and Virat Kohli have swashbuckling cover drives. Both can be aggressive chase masters and a picture of calm under intense pressure. Imagine them playing on the same team, chasing a total together. Smriti on strike, Virat at non-striker's end.

Mixed-gender teams could enrich the game with sound technique, resilience, a rich mix of stroke play and power hitting. Picture Richa Ghosh launching the ball into the stands alongside Ishan Kishan or Tilak Varma.

But we are not so fortunate. We get to see the men's team play at Wankhede, and the women's team at DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai. We are told that physicality and muscularity of men's game can pose a danger to 'soft' and 'delicate' nature of women's game. Be it hockey, football or cricket, men's and women's teams should, therefore, remain separate.


In the movie Chak De! India, coach Kabir Khan makes women's team play against the men's to convince officials that girls can compete on global stage. Men and women need not play hockey on separate teams; they can play on mixed-gender teams, with 6 women and 5 men on the field at a time.

Vedanta reminds us that we are not just our bodies; we are the Atman, pure consciousness. The body is a garment, a temporary costume worn in the grand play of existence. Gita declares, just as a person changes clothes, the Self changes bodies; the essence remains untouched. The awareness that sees, decides, responds is the same in all. Vedanta speaks of lila, the cosmic play. Life is not a battlefield of identities but a divine sport where consciousness expresses itself in countless forms. What is sport if not a microcosm of this lila?