The Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi recently
announced the setting up of Olympic task forces to review the poor performance
of the country in the Rio Olympic with a time horizon of 15 years.
It is an excellent move to get the young talent and prepare them for future and
also to review the present system and suggest improvements. Sports, has come
along a long way and in my time it was taken as a certainty that a good
sportsman cannot be a good student and vice versa and the parents discourage
their offspring to concentrate in studies rather than in sports. But no longer,
now sports is as much a profession as any other field and requires probably
more dedication, hard work, more challenges and expenses than studies.
China for 32 years did not take part in Olympics after their
poor performance and concentrated in building up infrastructure, facilities and
talents to create future Olympians and surprised everybody by their excellent performance
after 32 years when they went to the Olympics. Probably something like that is required
in India and winning medals in Olympics is to be taken on war footing and
finding very young talents, giving them support, build excellent world class
facilities for training, nurturing them to build future champions, who will
bring glory to India. We can take lessons from Germany before and after
unification, USA, China, Jamaica and UK and study their methods and the support
system to young budding Olympians and suitably modify them to match our culture
and environment. But it will not require a team of politicians and civil
servants and old timers to visit these countries to study their methods and
give useless suggestions which cannot be implements in India due to various
reasons or they use it as a free sightseeing trip and do not bother to submit a
report even. Keep these people as far away as possible from anything to do with
sports unless they have represented India in Olympics and won medals. I am not
talking of Asian games or Commonwealth games but only of Olympics as these
hardly have any competition. Take sports as any other profession and create
infrastructure and other facilities and for heaven’s sake stop utilizing
foreign coaches for training. We have enough of good talents in India itself.
To give an example, just look at our medal winners and those who missed
narrowly and find that all these have Indian coaches. There are thousands of
suggestions to improve sports in India and I can only outline a few of them.
1. Disband all sports
federations and associations and start with BCCI. It is not the job of the
politicians, civil servants and Govt to be in sports but it is the job of
former sportsmen and their coaches. Government only needs to provide the money
for the creation of world class facilities and allow private former sportsmen
to run these by scouting talent, provide facilities like hostel, education,
food, etc on payment basis or subsidized rates or even free depending upon the
financial capability of the individual. Government can lease these facilities
to players for say 5 years and subject to review depending upon how many world
class sportsman they have produced. The wards will also have to be subjected to
a similar review and will be removed in case they do not show improvements or
come up to standards. These facilities can be at two or even three levels,
district level, state level and national level.
The district level facilities will be managed by player, who in the past
has represented state in the national games, the state facilities to be managed
by persons who in the past have represented India in Olympics and the national
facility to be managed by persons who have won medals in world championships
and Olympics. They have to be given powers commensurate with their
responsibilities and shielded from unnecessary political or government
interference and their progress reviewed by other regulatory body again
consisting of former players. It will also require setting up of a regulatory
body to regulate, judge and assess the performance of these facilities and the
person to run them and this body to have statutory status with direct access to
the PMO or a minster of sports who himself has been an Olympian in the past,
either from Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha. A person who has not represented the country
in any discipline should not be associated or be part of anything to do with
the management, advisory, running of facility or in the regulatory body. Please
avoid using cricket players in any sports discipline other than cricket. Talent
scouts should go to the villages and tribal areas as persons from these areas are more
likely to have more determination and an urge to perform than from cities.
2. Stop offering Government and PSU jobs to these national
player in their prime but encourage them to take up coaching or opening sports
academy or take these facilities made by Government on lease to train and share
their experiences with other budding stars in the age group 0f 8 to 14 years.
Govt and PSU jobs can be offered after they are past their prime.
3. Concentrate on very young and train them by offering
incentives to them and their families with free education, training, food and
sports gear in the age group of 8 to 14 years. After 28 years of age, the
athlete if he/she has not achieved anything then the chances are almost nil for
them to show improvement. At best they can only maintain what they have
achieved so far. Avoid sending them to world championships and Olympics unless
they show improvement from their past performance significantly.
4. Scout talent in schools and pick up individuals who show
talent and inclination.
5. Encourage sports
competition at school level and it is here you can pick up individuals with
talents not necessarily top performers. Let these talent hunters go to village
schools and tribal areas to scout budding talent youngsters and not confine
oneself to the cities.
6. Provide the best equipment to these youngsters and train
with the best Indian coaches.
7. Encourage coaches by making it an honorable profession
and well paid also. If required give them cash awards also besides awards so
that their family conditions improve and they can devote more time and effort
to coaching rather than running around to earn a decent livelihood for their
families.
8. Mere qualifying in Olympics should not be the criteria to
go and represent the nation in Olympic but they should have come close of up to
the bronze medal standard in the last Olympic to represent the country in
Olympics. This should be the lowest mark for a candidate and he should be encouraged,
coached provided for until he meets these standards.
9. Stop sending sportsman to all the XYZ tournaments abroad
on public money unless they meet the above mentioned standard. Provide competition
in India till he reaches that level. The money to be spent on these foreign
trips can be utilized to provide better facilities, diet and equipment and
better coaches till they reach that standard. This will force he athletes to
strive harder and harder to prove themselves. If they do not meet the standards
by 20 or 21 years of age then discard hem and go to new talents.
10. Provide more quality competitions at school, district
and state levels to help the athletes in developing a competitive
spirit.
11. Money from Cash rich sports in India like cricket can be
diverted to improve the standard of other games rather than being spent on
their own players. Incentives for players should be the same irrespective of
which game they play rather than making some sports more lucrative than others.
12. The task force and the committee should consist of
eminent young players from each discipline rather than using old timers. Set a
long time horizon 0f 16 to 20 years by which we should have produced world
class athletes rather than focusing on next Olympics. If you have not achieved
much in Rio then the chances are very likely that the next will be the same or
with little variation. Set long term goals with young talents rather than short
term goals with players in their prime or past their prime.
14. Remove the Government control of the sports and the
sports bodies and stop politicians, civil servants or other non sports persons
from controlling or managing the sports bodies. Allow players, individuals and
coaches to take control of these and manage them. Government should be a
facilitator to provide the infrastructure, incentives, grants or subsidies and
to overall supervise the performance of these facilities, coaches and
individuals. Allow corporate to build and manage these facilities, if they wish
to but maintain a regulatory presence. These bodies should not be a profit
making bodies but a sportsman building bodies.
15. Create school of sports at each locality in the city and
also in each village or at a collection of villages rather than concentrating
only at state or national level. It is not important as to where the person has
come from but what he does with these facilities to achieve his and national
dream. It is more important to focus on rural and tribal areas as persons
coming from some of these tribes and villages have a natural talent more suited
to a particular sport. Majority of our sports persons who have achieved some
distinction in sports in national or international level are from these areas
and also from poor to very poor families. Give them incentive and also to their
families.
16. Stop expecting too much from our athletes and create
media hype about them as it puts a lot of pressure on the athletes and they
tend to perform below par due to expectations. In Rio Olympics most of the
athletes could not even manage to reach the mark which they had achieved in
their last performance and the timings and performance was below par. Train
them to handle pressure at international level. Performance in Olympics is very
different from taking part in international tournaments. Here the eye of whole
nation is on you and the pressure to maintain even the past performance can be
tremendous and can even break a person. The competition is more severe and
demanding as each individual is representing a nation besides glory for himself
and the next chance will come only after four years. There is no second chance
and a small mistake or below par performance will eliminate you. Besides athletics
training the athletes are to be trained in handling pressure and performing in
adverse conditions. Maybe training in Yoga will help them to overcome this
pressure and remain calm and composed in adverse conditions.
17. Reaching your
peak or peaking as it is called, at the right time and place is like tuning
your TV channel or radio station and one has to learn as to when to peak at the
right time and place. Peaking early or late will only result in bitter
disappointment for self as well as for the nation. This peaking is important as
it cannot be sustained for long and hence timing it for the right time is
essential. This requires training and skill which should be part of your
training and the coaches and psychologists associated with the athlete can play
a very big role due to their experiences and hence their choice during the
competition is very important. Older
athletes with their share of experiences, success and failure along with the
reasons can be of great help.
