The Hindu : Sport : SAI gears up to face the challenges

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Friday, Sep 21, 2007
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Sport - Sports : General

SAI gears up to face the challenges

A. Vinod

Various schemes are being reviewed simultaneously so as to get optimum results

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Over the years since its inception in 1984, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) might have drawn flak from various quarters for its many acts of omissions and commissions.

Slowly, this governmental arm is gearing up to face the challenges with the aim of helping the top sportspersons to perform creditably in the international sporting arena.

Indicating the many changes being made to help the organisation gain a better image, Ratan P. Watal, SAI Director General, during his recent visit to Thiruvananthapuram, told The Hindu that the priority of SAI now was to help India finish at least second in the overall medals tally at the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games.

“It is of course not going to be an easy task.” Giving a fair deal of information on the slew of schemes being drawn up to achieve its objectives, the SAI Director General went on to add: “As of now, we have broadly divided our sportspersons to three tiers — tier 1 comprising the top sportspersons, tier 2 consisting of our talented young athletes and our trainees with the National Sports Talent Contest (NSTC) and day-boarding schemes in tier 3. Our immediate objective is to double the number of trainees at each of these three levels. And within the next two years or so, we would like to have at least 2,000 sportspersons in tier 1, roughly around 10,000 in tier 2 and 20,000 in tier 3.”

Various schemes

He said the various schemes are being reviewed simultaneously so as to get optimum results. “For example, our schemes offer coaching in swimming and gymnastics to only those above 14 years of age, whereas it is essential to provide training in both these disciplines from a much lower age.

If India is to perform creditably at a multi-discipline event like the Olympic Games, the Asian Games or the Commonwealth Games, we can only do so if we start getting medals in those disciplines which offer the most number of medals like athletics, gymnastics and swimming. So, we have to change our focus and thereby our schemes, especially the NSTC and day-boarding schemes, which I should admit was initially implemented rather haphazardly.”

On the infrastructure front too, SAI has big plans for the future. “What we lack most is basic infrastructure and good training equipments. To overcome this problem, we are planning to lay ten synthetic tracks for athletics and an equal number of astro-turf surfaces for hockey at different centres this year itself.

“A committee has been appointed to identify the centres in which these could be laid and its report is expected soon. However, our priority will be to lay these tracks and turfs at our own Sports Training Centres so that our trainees at the various STCs (SAI Training Centres) get the maximum advantage out of this. Also, maintenance would not be major problem, if the tracks and turfs are laid at the STCs,” Mr. Watal said.

Likewise, the SAI is also looking at ways and means to reorient the pattern of training coaches in the country. “Ever since the diploma courses in coaching were started at the NIS, very little change has occurred in either the content or conduct of these courses. So, we now appointed a committee headed by the UGC vice-chairman, Prof. Mool Chand Sharma, to look into all these issues and suggest remedial measures. Once the report from this committee is available, we would like to step in and bring about a qualitative change on how our coaches can be trained. It is highly essential as our sportspersons needs to be trained by knowledgeable coaches, well aware of the modern concepts of coaching.”

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