Time to kick out politics from sports
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 31, 2014 -
In a significant move that would certainly give a big boost to development of sports movement in India, the Ministry of Sports, Government of India has revised the Scheme of Special Awards to medal winners and their coaches in various sporting competitions by enhancing the award money.
Accordingly, an Olympic gold medalist will now get Rs 75 lakh as against the existing incentive cash reward of Rs 50 lakh.
A silver medalist will now receive Rs 50 lakh from Rs 30 lakh while a bronze medal winner will get Rs 30 lakh from the earlier Rs 20 lakh.
Similarly, the reward money for medal winners in Asian and Commonwealth Games has also been enhanced from the existing Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh for the gold medalists, from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh for the silver medalists and from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for the bronze medalists.
Not to forget the contributions of the coaches behind the success of the players, the reward money to be given to the deserving coaches has also been revised.
However, under the revised scheme, the number of days of training or coaching imparted by the coaches to the medal winning players preceding the sporting events will be taken into consideration at the time of deciding the eligibility of the coaches for the award money and the eligibility has been reduced from 240 days to 180 days.
What is even more appreciative in the newly revised Scheme of Special Awards to Medal Winners of the Government of India is the inclusion of World Championships of Blind, Deaf-lympics and Special Olympics and recognition of the sporting spirit of the ‘special category’ players among our midst.
Hence, the award money for medalists at Paralympics, Para Asian and Para-Commonwealth Games has been fixed at par with medalists of Olympics, Asian and Commonwealth Games.
All these initiatives are appreciative and as we stated early, they would surely go a long way in infusing the much needed boost to the development of sports movement in India.
But one lingering thought that remains is the obnoxious ‘dirty politics’ in Indian sports that comes to haunt the mind of the players and their coaches at one time or the other, thus, determining their hard work and dedication.
In the light of all these new changes in the Scheme of Special Awards to medal winners and their coaches, perhaps, it is high time to kick out dirty politics and the even more dirtier politicians from ruling the roost in various sporting federations and associations in India for ensuring meaningful development of sports in India so that medal winning players and their coaches could enjoy the reward money they duly and truly deserve.
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.