Talk about Unity in Sports unfolds in Olympian scale!
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National Olympic Committee (NOC) President Suresh Subramaniam said a mouthful when he exclaimed that to dwell in the past was not the way to produce Olympic champions. What of course spoiled the appetite of the Olympic boss was the SAG tamasha that is now being taken to the cleaners who are scrutinising how each morsel was consumed on the way to the salubrious climes of Kathmandu and back by an oversize contingent that did not fully justify what the hamstrung treasury paid for!
Not that the NOC is holier than the pope, but it appears that the Ministry of Sports (MOS) had no clue what they were about and merely took charge of matters that were best left to the sports gurus at Olympic House. Even before the staggered departures took flight, many of the teams knew that the contest for berths was on, with the MOS top heavy on many counts! That most of what finally took place came on orders from the fourth floor of the iconic Racecourse edifice was known to those who bake the cake. But we all know that you cannot have the cake and eat it too.
And so yes, a post mortem must be done to ingratiate those who are now the power brokers at the MOS. But what even the NOC chief will not dare to examine closely is the ‘New Normal’ lessons that we are being lectured about following the COVID-19 virus that caught the whole world napping. We don’t have to go back to slumber on pious thoughts of unity. What must be done is to take the old faggots and turn the skin over the carcass!
We must make bold to reject what has repeatedly nullified our efforts and bring in a new order that does not leave room for murky aftermaths. A re-engineered model must be brought to bear where accountability is the ultimate watchword.
This column has suggested a Unity-Formula where the MOS and NOC must mesh and reduce the fat structures that only results in blame games after the damage is done. We can propose a new paradigm to the world as we have done with the pandemic battle and offer HE the President, a bold plan of merging the MOS and NOC at a cost which would be 50% less than it requires to run the overweight machines that has more divisions on both sides than you bother to count.
That multiple DGs that don’t speak to each other at the best of times, is what is apparent with one countermanding the other! Constant meetings that don’t even start on time in most instances does not augur well for those engaged in sports administration. We are at a day and age where effectiveness and efficiency is being turned on its head and a more compliant deliverable brought under the microscope!
The MOS is now looking at narrowing the gap between school and national sports squads with a lot of blame placed on coaches who virtually keep their progeny captive. These efforts are great but it is the result that matters in the end and that is the end game of any Unity mantras. So, where does the NOC fit into this scheme of things? Where does the elite training academy that was spoken about fit into the scheme of things? More questions than answers as usual.
With the hustings closing in on us and the virtual circus now taking shape, there are clowns aplenty. In the religious firmament of Cricket in our land, a former Sports Minister led the way with a scandalous match-fixing charge attracting the ire of all the superstars of yesteryear. In football, a new foreign coach is about to assemble a new squad to bring back our national ensemble from the depths of despair, but first he wants to focus on SAFF; how nice!
In like manner, we have so many sports with very little direction. What we must insist is that these plans are placed in the national spotlight from which they cannot escape with lame excuses. A National Sports Portal can do the trick without much gyration from the masters at MOS and NOC. Once we have these facts and figures within a cohesive plan on-line, the public will make it their business to track the progress of the national wealth we unearth in sports and keep all and sundry informed about performance in each of the disciplines that now burden the pigeon holes at MOS. That way there is nowhere to hide except perhaps, under a United banner!