India and Australia have unveiled a new roadmap to deepen cooperation across the sports ecosystem, from community participation to elite performance, as both countries seek to turn shared passion on the field into a more structured partnership off it.
The “Strategy for Sports Collaboration between India and Australia: A comprehensive partnership from grassroots to podium” was launched in New Delhi at TURF 2025, the 15th Global Summit on the Business of Sports organised by FICCI.
The report was released by India’s High Commissioner to Australia, Gopal Baglay, alongside Australian High Commissioner to India Philip Green, India’s Sports Secretary Hari Ranjan Rao, FICCI Director General Jyoti Vij and strategy author Molina Asthana, a Melbourne-based sports lawyer and National Chair for Sports, Arts and Culture at the Australia India Business Council.
Baglay said the strategy comes at a time when the wider India–Australia relationship is expanding rapidly, and people-to-people links are central to that growth.
He told the summit that TURF 2025 was a timely platform to harness the changes underway in India’s sports sector and that the report sets out practical ways to match India’s sporting ambitions with Australia’s long experience in high-performance sport and sports business.
Expressing hope it would guide the next phase of cooperation and help shape a detailed roadmap, he said,
“The Strategy Report identifies the vast potential to expand the India–Australia partnership, offering practical recommendations to marry India’s sporting ambitions with Australia’s strengths.”
Australia is the partner country for this year’s TURF summit, which brings together government, federations, leagues, clubs, brands and investors to discuss the growth of India’s sports economy under the theme “Indian Sports – Forging the Path to Global Excellence”.
Ms Asthana’s report is understood to map out opportunities across key areas such as:
- community and school sport and talent identification
- coach education, officiating and high-performance pathways
- sports science, medicine and performance analytics
- women’s and girls’ participation and leadership
- sports law, integrity and governance
- sports tourism, events and facility development.
Asthana, who has long advocated for closer sports links between the two countries and founded the Multicultural Women in Sport initiative in Australia, was thanked by the High Commissioner for her work in shaping the strategy.
The report builds on a broader bilateral framework in which sport is increasingly seen as a pillar of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The two countries already share strong sporting ties, especially in cricket and hockey, and have used major tours and series as high-profile platforms for the relationship.
Australia’s High Commissioner Philip Green used his partner-country address at TURF to underline Canberra’s interest in deeper engagement with India’s fast-growing sports market, including in areas such as major-event delivery, fan engagement, venues, sports tech, and education pathways for athletes and administrators.
Sports Secretary of India Hari Ranjan Rao told delegates that India’s rapid investment in infrastructure, leagues and athlete development created “natural synergies” with Australia, which has a long record of hosting international events and running high-performance systems.
The strategy is expected to inform future government-to-government discussions as well as commercial and institutional partnerships, including potential exchanges between national federations, universities, high-performance centres and professional leagues in both countries.
Baglay said the aim was to move from ad hoc cooperation to a more structured, long-term approach that links grassroots participation to podium success, while also supporting jobs and education in the sports industry.
With India positioning itself as an emerging sports hub and Australia looking to deepen ties with a key Indo-Pacific partner, officials from both sides indicated that the strategy would be used as a working document to guide concrete projects in the coming years.
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