READERS’ REACTION

I REFER to your sports report titled “NSAs must keep their fingers on the pulse in the digital age” (The Star, June 27, 2020). The National Sports Associations (NSAs) have hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons for not keeping proper records of athletes, coaches, officials and their achievements and contributions. It has been discovered that at least 75% of our 56 NSA’s do not have a website to serve their stakeholders professionally or to market their association internally or globally. It’s a positive move by the Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican to allocate a total grant of RM3mil for digitalisation effort. Sports bodies should take this opportunity to create their websites. Our NSAs and the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) must set the pace by providing all the relevant information, their history, their purpose and mission, their achievements, information on their outstanding athletes, coaches, officials and their contributions at the national and international levels. It’ll be nice to have the profiles, photos and videos of past and present athletes too as it will surely inspire potential athletes from all over the country. The NSAs can also put up their annual reports as it can reflect on the operation of the respective associations in a transparent manner. Not forgetting, it’ll be great if they can include the associations’ long-term vision and strategies as it will help these sports bodies to connect with the society. The ultimate success of the NSAs will depend very much on competent leadership to initiate the digitalisation of their websites and events.