JOIN US'Responsibility lies with NSFs'
The government is of a firm opinion that National Sports Federations (NSFs) need to be more responsible and ought to adopt a professional approach for smooth conduct of sports in the country.
Towards this, the government is mulling to rope in managers to run the federations. “Nothing is going to change till such time there is hard core professionalism in the federations. We really need hardcore managers, we don’t need any special sports manager, but any person who has strong problem solving capacity and system building capacity,” Sports Authority of India (SAI) DG and Union Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas told DH.
“We have now decided we will spend Rs 1 crore or a little more per federation per annum to pay these guys to run the federation. Something like a CEO or talent development director, a coach development and technical official development director.”
With several foreign coaches ending their contracts on bitter notes, blaming the country’s system, the SAI, taking an exception, has made strong observation regarding the federations. It believes the federations do not always exercise proper discretion in coaches’ selection.
“It’s very difficult to respond in a system where responsibility is not assumed by the people who are responsible for it. Though we will have to sign off, the people who are deciding about the coach, are the federations. It is not possible that we thrust upon them a person who they say is not up to the mark. Until we see a valid reason to suspect the entire recommendation, we will accept it. We have been liberal enough to accept five foreign coaches.”
”SAI and government can be a financier, a facilitator, and a provider of infrastructure support. But ultimately federations have to do what they are supposed to be doing. For example the case of women’s boxing coach (Stephane Cottalorda). This foreign coach seems to be a person who perhaps never worked outside his country. He was merely 30 days in India, and needed a PAN card to be remitted the due amount. Making a case for him, we still remitted as an advance, not salary, 70 percent of the amount. But he didn’t even come back with the team. We have wasted 2-3 month process on him.”
National Tennis Centre
The SAI is excited about the National Tennis Centre which it is opening as junior development programme. Former Davis Cupper Somdev Devvarman, who is also the national observer, is playing a central role in it.