The youthful Sports Minister shifts into high gear in style!
View(s):At a meeting with all National Sports Associations (NSA) at the Duncan White Auditorium of the MOS (Ministry of Sports) recently, Sports Minister Namal Rajapakse articulated his designs for the development of sports in a style not seen before in this august assembly of sports men and women. He seemed very much at ease perhaps because of his natural sports disposition, presenting several new ideas aimed at lifting the somewhat moribund sports record of recent years.
The youngest Sports Minister has greater challenges ahead of him - Pic by Amila Gamage
Of note was the dialogue initiated with the Minister of Education (MOE) to remove the shackles brought about by the pandemic and provide a signal as clear as can be, for the resumption of school based sports. The Minister of Health (MOH) and its officials hold the reins in this instance, and both the MOE and MOS cannot ride roughshod over their obvious concerns. But there is no doubt that the three Ministries must collaborate single-mindedly in getting things moving within a safety framework that is acceptable to all and safe for the school sports population.
The Sports Minister next dwelt on the aspect of coaching, adroitly emphasizing that our failures if at all, rests with the coaching strata between the centre and the district levels. The consistency and standards of coaching for any sport he stressed must be uniform, if we were to derive expected results. In order to address that shortcoming he had negotiated with the Wijaya Group to use their social media networks to transfer a coaching curriculum from the National Coaches and Senior National Players of each earmarked sport and demonstrate these fundamentals to the Coaches and Players in the Districts. He hoped that this would garner interest and inculcate a sense of inclusivity in sports development, complementing the regional infrastructures that he intended to fast track in the near future. A laudable task indeed and the Wijaya offer is most praiseworthy if the powers that be, can implement the idea in a surefire and workmanlike manner.
To drive the national impetus he wished to create, his next foray was the establishment of dedicated Sports Schools throughout the island. Such a network will no doubt provide the academies that could nurture the talent of youth who wished to pursue a career in sports leading to accomplishment at an international level and the rewards that comes in its wake. Sports scholarships in Universities both here and abroad and a whole new paradigm of exposure is what he foresees, displaying a ready grasp of the requirements that breeds elite sportspeople and tomorrow’s champions. Wining Gold in world arenas was precisely placed on the agenda!
In summary, he intoned what was music to many ears. He summed up a policy initiative that would place the onus of sports management with the National Sports Council (NSC) and its outstanding crop of sports leaders. He spelt out what this column has been advocating for a long time; the need for the NSAs to submit plans and ensure timely implementation, all driven by databases that capture and monitor progress from time to time. Already, data of the NSAs and of each of its sportsmen and women are being collated into a national database that will help the NSC closely monitor where the caravan is heading and forecast accurately, the athletes who will hold their own at regional and international levels. The National Selectors will also not have to rely on guess work for long as the technology will reveal our best bets and ultimate chances!
The Minister has one more task to perhaps deal with. And that is to put his own Ministry in order. What seems pretty obvious is the spate of mail that emanates after never ending meetings demanding information from NSAs over and over again and at short notice. The databases will hopefully resolve most of that duplication and multiplicity of work flows. A definite restructure on modern lines of management is a veritable need of the hour. Any conflicts of interest must be eliminated and a transparent efficient regime brought into place. It may also behove the MOS to review once more its relationship with the NOC and evaluate how best these two principalities can partner each other effectively! It is apparent that the time to move into high gear has come.