The Commonwealth Games flag changed hands inside Glasgow's OVO Hydro on Monday morning. While most of India slept, the handover at 2:30 am, featuring superstar javelin athlete Neeraj Chopra, PT Usha, and Gujarat Deputy CM Harsh Sanghvi, was much more than a closing-ceremony ritual. The stadium erupted with joy.
India got the ball rolling with the opening ensemble titled 'The World is One Family: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', which celebrated the enduring Indian philosophy of universal brotherhood.
The next four years began with that.
Ahmedabad will host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, exactly a century after the event first began in Hamilton, Canada. India hosted once before, in Delhi in 2010. This one carries a different expectation. It is less about bringing the Commonwealth back than proving the country can stage something even bigger.
India, one of the youngest countries in the world, wants to make everything bigger and grander. During the Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad, the country will look to flex its sporting and technological muscle, blending both in the opening and closing ceremonies to stage a spectacle that will rival some of China's best displays.
Everything now points towards 2036 and India's position as a soft power. The Government is clear that they want the Olympic Games. Ahmedabad has been identified as the centrepiece of that ambition. The Commonwealth Games are the closest thing to a live rehearsal before the IOC decides whether India is ready.
There may not be another opportunity like this. Ironically, Ahmedabad's preparations begin after one of the smallest Commonwealth Games in modern history.
Glasgow 2026 looked nothing like Birmingham four years earlier. Gone were the sprawling schedules and dozens of sports. Faced with rising costs and reluctant host cities, the Commonwealth Sport movement chose survival over spectacle. The programme was trimmed to 10 sports. Existing venues did the heavy lifting. The event became proof that the Games could still exist without asking governments to build an entirely new city. They did not even build a games village, and no concession on visas either. It wasn't glamorous, just practical.
Ahmedabad's advantage: Flexibility
Ahmedabad is expected to take the opposite route - not by spending recklessly, but by taking advantage of new hosting rules.
Under the revised model, only athletics and swimming are compulsory. Everything else is open to negotiation. That gives India something every previous host has wanted: flexibility.
Cricket is an obvious inclusion. Hockey almost certainly returns. Beyond that, there are discussions around kabaddi, kho kho and mallakhamb. Whether they eventually make the programme is another matter, but India now has the chance to shape the identity of the Games by organising it with 15-18 sports. That matters politically, and sporting-wise too.
Glasgow showed something the Indian Olympic Association and the Government probably did not expect.
Without wrestling, shooting and badminton-the sports that have traditionally driven India's medal haul-the delegation was expected to slide down the table. Instead, it finished fourth with 39 medals, including 13 gold.
The medal tally tells only half the story. The distribution of the games tells the rest.
India's boxers delivered what may well be the greatest campaign by a single nation in Commonwealth Games history-10 medals, including a staggering seven gold.
Judo made history too. Asmita Dey and Harsh Singh became India's first-ever Commonwealth champions in the sport, opening a brand-new chapter.
Athletics, meanwhile, continued its steady rise. Gulveer Singh completed a memorable distance double, winning medals in both the 10,000m and 5,000m. Tejaswin Shankar added another milestone in the decathlon, while India's overall athletics medal tally doubled compared to the previous Commonwealth Games.
Taken together, these performances tell a much bigger story. India is no longer relying on a handful of traditional medal sports. The pipeline is widening.
If wrestling and shooting return to the programme in 2030, India's medal prospects change dramatically.
The return of traditional sports and addition of the likes of yogasana, kabaddi, kho kho and mallakhamb could well propel India not just into the top 3, but even to the top spot.
India had won historic 101 medals in Delhi and ended in the second position in 2010. The inclusion of Indian sports in Ahmedabad could take them close to Australia and even challenge their supremacy.
And perhaps the biggest question of all-will Ahmedabad 2030 do for Indian sport what Delhi 2010 did?
The success of the Delhi Commonwealth Games laid much of the foundation for India's record medal haul at the London 2012 Olympics. If Ahmedabad can create a similar ripple effect, its true legacy won't be measured in Commonwealth medals. It will be measured two years later, on the Olympic podium in Brisbane. A larger pool of prospective medal winners can also propel India to a top 10 finish in 2036, an ambition India has loudly spoken of.
But hosting a Commonwealth Games is never judged by medals alone. The real examination begins once the stadium lights go out.
Gujarat has already earmarked ?1,278 crore for sports infrastructure in its latest budget. The ambitious Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave will be the centrepiece, featuring a new athletics stadium and an indoor arena. Metro expansion, airport connectivity and major road upgrades are all part of the larger vision.
Athens had built venues that later became symbols of neglect. Rio is still grappling with facilities that have struggled to find long-term purpose. Every host promises a lasting legacy. Very few actually deliver one.
Learning from mistakes
India appears to have learnt from those mistakes.
Officials have increasingly spoken about public-private partnerships, temporary venues wherever possible and spreading future Olympic events across multiple cities instead of concentrating everything in one metropolitan hub. It is a far more practical model than many previous hosts embraced.
Almost every major sporting event has ended up costing far more than originally projected.
There is little reason to believe Ahmedabad will be any different. Which is why the 2030 Games won't ultimately be judged by its opening, closing ceremonies or its medal tally. It will be judged by what it leaves behind.
Will local communities gain world-class sporting facilities? Will the next generation of athletes inherit better training centres? Will public transport improve for residents long after the athletes have left?
For years, the Commonwealth Games have struggled to define their relevance in an increasingly crowded sporting calendar.
It is no longer just another edition of the Commonwealth Games. It is the first real examination of India's Olympic ambitions. And unlike a polished presentation inside an IOC boardroom, this test will unfold before the eyes of the entire world.
