MSSA elections will be held in July this year, insists Fr Jude

Fr Jude Rodrigues has been the president of the Mumbai School Sports Association (MSSA) for the last 16 years, having taken over the reins in 2006 with the promise of developing grassroots-level and school sports in the city.

As preparations begin for the sport body’s elections this year, FPJ asks him about his time at the helm of Asia’s largest school sports body.

How has your experience been as chief of MSSA?

I joined as vice president in 2004 before becoming president in 2006. The challenges we faced earlier were very different from the challenges now.

When I took over, we were in financial mess. We started getting sponsors like Nike and Mumbai Indians. Today we don’t have a financial crunch. Do you have any plans for the development of the MSSA ground which hosts thousands of kids each year?

The MMRDA dug half of our ground for the Metro construction. They said initially it will take around six months but it's been more than two years now and it’s likely to take another year or year and a half. When you were elected president, your focus was on development of grassroots sports in Mumbai. Are you satisfied with what you have done?

No. The facility is not there for the children to fully develop. That being said, enthusiasm should also come from the children. Participation is there but without complete enthusiasm. To develop grassroots we need to have academies for various sports. We are working on that and hopefully it will happen in the years to come.

Can you elaborate on that?

We took the MSSA academy hockey team to play in the Khelo India Games and other national competitions. I don’t think we performed well and that’s because we should be training the players regularly. The players can only compete if they have trained together. But we don’t have the facilities to do that, especially when it comes to hockey. That’s why I want to reiterate that multi-sport astro turf is a must. Will there be a regular sports season next academic year considering the government has given the green signal to schools right from the primary level?

According to me, yes. Even during the pandemic, we were active online. We had webinars for all the sports. We even had online competitions for chess. There is private coaching going on at MSSA’s tennis and basketball courts which are located inside the premises. Is that allowed?

We have appointed coaches to conduct classes. We’ve done it so we can make some revenue since MSSA tournaments were not happening anyway.

There have been some allegations that the MSSA elections planned for this year will not be held…

The elections will happen in July as planned. Your hockey secretary Lawrence Bing recently resigned saying he was not happy with the functioning of MSSA and he’s said he will contest for the president’s post. What do you have to say about it?

In his resignation letter, he mentioned some personal reason why he couldn’t continue and we accepted that. About him contesting elections, he’s free to do so. Nobody can stop him.