The Hindu : Sport : Ministry issues guidelines for selection of athletes and coaches

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Ministry issues guidelines for selection of athletes and coaches

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Union Sports Ministry has issued detailed guidelines for selection of athletes and coaches and for more efficient management of coaching camps. This follows the Government’s acceptance of recommendations of the T.S. Krishna Murthy panel that went into the Monika Devi doping case.

Most of the guidelines are repetitions of existing guidelines and government policies and practices. Some important changes have been made in the procedures for selection of athletes.

If the new guidelines are to be believed, the National federations will, from now on, fix the selection criteria for major international events and inform the same to all concerned.

“In case of measurable events, the minimum qualifying norms may be fixed and announced along with the notice for selection trials and be put up on the website of the NSF concerned and also be forwarded to SAI and the Ministry to be put up on their respective websites,” says a ministry communication to the SAI, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and federations.

Rarely followed

Till now, fixed selection criteria laid down by the ministry for multi-discipline games like Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, were available though they were rarely followed in recent years. (In Olympic Games, the qualification process being tough, no fixed criteria had been followed for the last few editions).

It has been clarified that there would be no Government observer or SAI nominee as part of the selection committee to be headed by the federation president and comprising eminent sportspersons, preferably Arjuna awardees, though the observer could be attending the selection trials.

The fresh guidelines have re-iterated the Government’s position with regard to selection of the National Coach. He/she would be selected by a panel headed by the federation president and including the DG, SAI, Executive Director (Teams), SAI, one former international (preferably Arjuna awardee or international medal winner) to be nominated by the Government and a nominee of the IOA from a panel prepared by SAI.

Frequently violated

The provision has always remained in the Government guidelines since the mid-90s, but it has been violated frequently by the federations, the prime example being the Indian Hockey Federation.

Even the IOA ad hoc committee, which recently took the decision to appoint M.K. Kaushik as the National Coach, did not feel it fit to go through the laid-down procedure and gave the impression that its selection committee, which chooses the players, had made the selection of the coaches also.

In an obvious reference to doping and the Monika Devi case, the ministry communication states: “The athlete once selected for a team, shall be treated with utmost dignity. In case of any doubt arising, the athlete has to be taken into confidence. Proper appeal mechanism shall be put in place, to ensure proper and timely redress of their grievances.”

It has to be accepted, however, that the athlete cannot be taken into confidence unless a final report is obtained from the dope testing laboratory. The “appeal mechanism” can be put into place only after a positive case is dealt with by a hearing panel set up by the federation at the request of the athlete. Such a hearing can only take place after the federation deals with any request from the athlete for a ‘B’ sample test.

Till hearings are completed, an athlete charged with a “positive” is normally put under provisional suspension. There are no rules within the WADA Code to appeal against provisional suspension.

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