Strong base
Coaches should be paid well and made accountable
strengthen the coaching base. Coaches should be given good salaries and other benefits. At the same time, they should also be made accountable. For quite some time, I have been advocating a contract system in coaching. Coaches should draw motivation from Rio silver medallist PV Sindhu’s coach Pullela Gopichand and Dipa Karmakar’s coach Bisheshwar Nandi. If they can produce results, why can’t others?
Moreover, strengthening the coaching base should not be limited only to national camps or at centres of excellence. We should have dedicated coaches at the grass-root level as well. If we don’t take care of the sapling, we can’t expect it to develop into a big tree.
ACADEMIES
For the development of sports, academies with all the facilities, including admission to good schools and top-quality medical facilities should be made available. We have to provide facilities and only after that can we expect results from the players.
China has a good model of sports schools/academies and we should take note.
A sportsperson has limited time to peak at the international arena. World-class academies can work as feeding centres for national camps, and with this we can have multiple replacements for one spot in the Indian team.
According to me, Athens silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore should be made the sports minister. He has experience, and being an Olympic medallist has a fair idea of what is required for a sportsperson to excel at the world’s highest stage.