A fortnight ago, Wimbledon decided to deny entries to players from Russia and Belarus for the 2022 edition of the tournament. Coming as it did against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Wimbledon said it was to thwart any attempt from the Russian regime to “derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with The Championships”. Many other sports, such as football, track and field, and Formula One, have also imposed sanctions of varying degrees. This has resurrected the debate on the influence of politics on sport. In a discussion moderated by N. Sudarshan, Sharda Ugra and Zeeshan Ali discuss the various facets of the same. Edited excerpts:
Is it possible to separate sports and politics? Can sports exist in a vacuum?
Sharda Ugra: Everyone always says, ‘Let’s try and separate sports from politics.’ But sport takes place within society, it is a product of society, and society is constantly being impacted by politics. So, it’s very hard to separate them. Given the history of political involvement in sport, because sport is seen as an agent of soft power, we will always end up in a situation like where we are today. In the highly professionalised world of elite sport, it gets even more complicated. We want to exist in an almost utopian sphere and go back to an amateur era. But you know, even that was not very utopian in the first place.
