Remove individual sports bodies!

Moving to the second topic, I came across this article recently. I had earlier talked here and here about BCCI and other sports. Let us get a few things straight:
1. In my opinion any organization which claims to do anything representative of the nation has to be open to public scrutiny irrespective of the source of its funds.
2. Cricket is the richest sport and BCCI - India's richest sports body - claims to select an Indian cricket team.
3. There is a sports ministry which is responsible for sports overall.
4. Various key positions in sports organizations today are manned by politicians.

In such a scenario I propose that there be modifications made to the overall structure.
1. There will be a sports minister and ministry above all.
2. Let there be IAS officers in-charge of the day-to-day administration of individual sports. These should be assisted in an advisory role by a respected sports player.
3. However for selection only experienced sportsperson should be present. Further they should also play a clear and prominent role to decide the training needs of the sportspersons.
4. There should not be any individual purses for the various sports bodies. Let there be a common pool for all funds. This might sound unjustified to some. Why should the funds obtained through sponsorship rights of say a cricket match be used for tennis? Well, I pay tax to the government. Do I have the right to claim that the government provide solely for my needs only? Is it justified (I am pretty sure Ayn Rand is turning in her grave)? However sportspersons represent the nation on the global stage. It is the government's responsibility to ensure they are properly trained. Let us not participate for participation's sake.
5. The news article mentioned above talks about funds being given to sports bodies run by PT Usha et al. This is a great idea. These are people who have won laurels for the country and themselves. Let there be all possible help for them.
6. However in all cases there should be accountability. This is zero today. Suresh Kalmadi was never penalized during his entire tenure as head of India's Olympics Committee for our dismal performance year-after-year.
7. We cannot avoid politicians in India. Let them be the overall bosses only if required. Please let our boards not be populated by them unnecessarily.

What right do the likes of Sharad Pawar, Arun Jaitley and Rajeev Shukla claim to be on the boards of cricket bodies? Today there is money in cricket. We find politicians in profusion there. Tomorrow if there is money elsewhere we will find them there.

De-politicise Sports - A Few Measures

I have written earlier about our politicians in sports, here, and here. My readers might have noticed that I rant a lot about our system. I realize that too. Hence from this post onwards I will also try to incorporate some suggestions instead of just complaining. It is always very easy to criticize, constructive work is difficult.

These are times Indian hockey fans will remember, for reasons good and bad. India beat Pakistan in China to clinch the Champions Trophy, while the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has chosen to move the 2011 Champions Trophy out of India to New Zealand owing to internal problems in India. We have two opposing bodies in India today for one hockey. This should come us a grim reminder for us to de-politicise sports and bring some rationality into our sports administration.

Another weird incident happened in London. At an ICC awards ceremony, where ironically Dhoni won an award for playing the game in its true spirit no one from the Indian cricket team attended. There are no prizes for guessing who did attend - Sharad Pawar and Rajiv Shukla - members of the BCCI and don't hold your breath, politicians. Our political class would do well to support Maken in his endeavour to de-politicise sports. But seeing that there is a conflict of interest in many politicians' cases, the question comes up, will this ever happen? Maken makes perfect sense.

1. Sports are played by young people, and for lack of a better word, by sportspersons. I believe one would be hard pressed to find many (active) sportspersons above the age of 40. Hence it makes no sense to have people who would very well fit the government's definition of senior citizens on our sports boards, both administering and selecting.

2. I believe the logic behind government servants getting transferred (frequently or occasionally) is that they do not develop any unwanted or unethical relationships with anybody by being posted in one location for a very long time. Further as time passes complacency creeps. This logic can be applied to sports boards also. So once again Maken's suggestion on the cap on the number of terms to two makes perfect sense.

3. Non-performing sportspersons are penalized by being dropped. One would like to know the measures applied to our boards in that sense also. There has been a huge hue and cry over selection proceedings being brought under the RTI Act. The way some governments declassify some files, is it not possible to make the meeting minutes public after some time elapses? Agreed, this gives people a chance to change the records, but at least this would probably be better than the current situation.

4. We occasionally hear people saying BCCI's funds should be used for other sports too. This is one option. There is another option. When boards like BCCI make hundreds of crores of revenue and profit how does it make sense to label them as charitable organizations? Bring it under the tax net, use that money for other sports. This way there is no charity involved. Obviously this would not be enough, this is where the government or the private sector can step in.

5. We are becoming a country of parrots today. We have students who get things by heart and spit them out in the exam. This is the definition of a good student. Many schools today do not have a proper playground. NDTV has a Marks for Sports Campaign. I am not saying that. But any new school that is set up today should mandatorily have a playground where children can play. Remember the saying, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy".