Ministry removes pay cap for coaches

NEW DELHI: The central government decided on Saturday to remove a salary cap of ~2 lakh for Indian coaches training elite athletes and also offer four-year contracts. It is a bid to narrow the salary gap with foreign trainers, a contentious issue for years, and attract top Indian athletes to take up high-performance coaching jobs post retirement.

“Indian coaches are showing good results and need to be rewarded for hard work. The government is also keen to attract the best coaching talent from across the country to train our elite athletes and we do not want the cap on compensation to be a deterrent for good coaches to join,” said Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju.

There are 45 foreign experts— coaches, high performance directors and support staff—on contract with Sports Authority of India (SAI) and drawing salaries between $4,000-$15,000 (approx. ~2.98 lakh-~11.2 lakh). There are 1,200 Indian coaches on SAI roster with scope to hire 300 more.

“The remuneration will be decided on the basis of the ex-elite athlete’s performance as an athlete as well as his or her success as a coach,” SAI said a statement. Many former internationals run academies in various sports and a higher salary will be an incentive to join national camps.

“If the remuneration is good then many Indian athletes will consider taking up coaching after retirement. The obsession (of federations) with foreign coaches has to go. There are many top international athletes in India who have played at the highest level and can be as good a coach,” said former badminton international Arvind Bhat, who runs an academy in Bengaluru.

Chief national badminton coach, Pullela Gopichand, has been for domestic coaches being given a bigger role. He said the salary boost has been a longpending request. “It will give a great boost to the sporting ecosystem by attracting many talented coaches and eminent ex-athletes to join the profession.”