Sarbananda Sonowal is a sportsman at heart. He is a huge cricket fan but would love to see India excel at multi-sport events, especially the Olympics and Asian Games.
Having assumed office recently as the Union Sports Minister, he is keen to introduce some fresh measures aimed at making the sports fraternity, officials in particular, more “professional and transparent.”
In an interaction with select journalists here on Sunday, Mr. Sonowal outlined some steps he had initiated in what he called a journey aimed at seeing India become a sporting power.
“The NTSS (National Talent Search Scheme) would help us reach out to youngsters (8-12 age group) at all levels.
“We shall pick and groom them with professional inputs.
“We want to provide them all possible support to handle all challenges in life,” said the Sports Minister.
No place for corruption Appealing to everybody connected with sport in India, Mr. Sonowal asked to keep “sports above controversy.
“There is no place for corruption and emphasis should largely be on good governance. Sportsmen need encouragement and I would stress on transparency in selection. All National Sports Federations and the IOA (Indian Olympic Association) have been sounded out in this regard.”
Mr. Sonowal said sports had to be given priority for a progressive society.
“We can groom till the university level where the youngsters will be assured foreign exposure and advanced training based on sports science and sports medicine.
“We will also modernise the infrastructure in a 6500 block-level programme. We are going to concentrate on rural, school and district level competitions.”
Collective approach In a clear indication aimed at a collective approach, Mr. Sonowal wanted the sports federations to become more active.
“We can’t have development in isolation. The federations have to ensure good governance and transparency.” The Sports Ministry had recently revived its directive to federations to update their websites.
Sports Authority of India (SAI) Director General Jiji Thomson expected “resistance” from the federations on the transparency issue for which the deadline is August 20.
Quality training The Sports Minister also dwelt on the subject of quality training of sportsmen.
“We need to improve our coaching standards and demand accountability,” he said.
Mr. Thomson threw more light, “We have more than 1000 coaches but sadly 70 per cent of them are above 50 years. It does impact their work and output.
We spend about Rs. 5.5 crore on the 31 foreign coaches in business but they report only to the federations,” bemoaned the SAI DG.
Commending the Indian sportspersons for their “excellent” job at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the Sports Minister promised “all help” to them for future assignments.
Common goal “We also welcome suggestions and criticism from everyone. We are here to serve Indian sports. We have a common goal and any tussle within the family can’t be healthy. We seek collective support for the benefit of our sportspersons.”
