Himachal calling: Laggard in sports: Mere cash awards can’t produce champs

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, August 4

A while back, the state government substantially enhanced cash awards for the state’s sportspersons winning medals in top international events like the Olympics, Asian Games and world championships etc.

State has few coaches

• Sportspersons need experienced coaches and good infrastructure from a young age to even dream of standing on a podium in the Olympics. And that’s precisely where the state is lacking at the moment. There are just 100-odd sanctioned posts for the coaches, and half of these have been lying vacant for quite some time now

An athlete bringing home a gold medal from the Olympics would get Rs 5 crore as cash award, same as in Haryana. Similarly, the cash awards in other top international competitions are now comparable to Haryana, the powerhouse of Indian sports.

The cash-strapped government probably hiked the cash awards knowing that it won’t put any pressure on the exchequer at least in the near future. It surely won’t in the ongoing Olympics — no sportsperson from the state has even qualified for the planet’s biggest sporting extravaganza. The situation is unlikely to be any different at other major top sporting events, for expecting a medal from the state’s sportspersons in top international events is akin to climbing Mount Everest without oxygen.

Yes, cash awards, along with jobs, are major incentives that encourage sportspersons to excel in the international arena. These incentives put Haryana on the path of becoming a sports giant it has become today around two decades back. But the promise of big cash awards alone after winning in top international events isn’t enough to produce champions – sportspersons need experienced coaches and good infrastructure from a young age to even dream of standing on a podium in the Olympics.

And that’s precisely where the state is lacking at the moment. There are just 100-odd sanctioned posts for the coaches, and half of these have been lying vacant for quite some time now. Such is the shortage in the state that junior coaches are officiating as District Sports Officers in most districts. Who would spot and groom a talented youngster when there’s such a huge shortage of coaches?

Despite the shortage, a few big sports achievers from the state, who have been given jobs on the basis of their performance in the Olympics and Asian Games, are not being utilised for coaching.

They are doing the same work as any other employee in their respective departments, which largely defeats the purpose of inducting them into government jobs.

The situation is more or less the same when it comes to sporting infrastructure. There aren’t enough coaching centres and sports hostels to engage enough youth and create a pool of talent. In sports, quality flows from quantity. For example, there’s just one 10m shooting range in the state even though the number of nationally-qualified shooters in the state has gone beyond 200. And if efforts are made to raise the infrastructure, it is hampered by sheer incompetence and bad planning.

Take the example of the proposed multi-purpose stadium at Katasani near Shimla. The original plan was to build a multi-purpose stadium at a cost of over Rs 50 crore. Midway, someone realised that there wasn’t enough space for the multi-purpose stadium, and it was decided to have a shooting range instead. At the moment, no one knows what will eventually come out of this half-baked idea.

Further, the sports associations have not been getting annual government grants for the last few years to conduct their district and state level events. Majority of the schools, too, leave a lot to be desired when it comes to promoting sports.

A few days ago, the Education Department had to issue an order for all schools to have physical training and sports activities for 15 minutes every day. The order says a lot about how little importance most schools accord to physical fitness and sports activities.