Sports in India

India fares very poorly in most sporting competitions (other than cricket, and in recent times, at badminton and chess). The National Sports Governance Bill tabled this monsoon tries to address the root causes for this. Policy Mandala analyses the bill.

 

What are the problems with the existing system? It is entirely structural:

“For decades, India’s sports governance has been plagued by dynastic control, opaque selections, budget leaks, lifetime presidencies, and a culture where politics often trumps performance.”

 

How does the new sports bill try to fix things? (1) It sets up a National Sports Tribunal to fast-track the closure of sports related disputes. This is indeed important since our civil courts take forever and:

“In sports, where careers peak in a handful of years, a delay like this doesn’t just hurt, it ends futures.”

 

(2) It makes Ethics and Election panels compulsory in every federation to try and root out conflicts of interest. (3) It brings in term limits and age caps on office bearers, ending lifetime leadership roles (how that was even allowed is beyond me). (4) It reserves 25% of seats for sportspersons and makes RTI mandatory for all government funded bodies. (5) It brings in annual grading of federations based on “transparency, inclusion, athlete welfare, and performance”. Future funding will be based on this.

“For the first time, bad governance might actually cost something.”

 

In principle, all this sounds like steps in the right direction. But will it work as intended, asks the article. It raises some valid operational concerns. The Tribunal, for example, doesn’t commit to time window to close cases. Without that, it could fail to serve the purpose. Will those 25% athlete seats get out-voted, effectively rendering them worthless?

 

There are also structural concerns with the proposal, continues the article. How do we ensure those 25% athletes are qualified and knowledgeable on sports governance matters? How about creating welfare frameworks like “pension schemes, post-retirement skilling, or job security”? Perhaps the 25% athlete seats should have veto rights on certain matters “such as changes in selection criteria or disciplinary actions, where conflicts of interest have historically undermined fairness”? Can selection criteria be published to improve transparency?

 

All valid points indeed. But I am curious how some of the Western countries attract enough kids to take a shot at a sports career? Surely they cannot be guaranteeing jobs to most people who try. And most of those folks will not make it to the top of their respective fields anyway. Even the ones who do won’t always be in well paying sports. How then does it work in the West? Perhaps we should analyze that as well if we want to improve India’s sporting prowess.


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