Sports Authority of India in Financial Crunch; CWG Stadiums open for Delhiites

Yesterday, the Sports Minister Mr. Ajay Maken had announced that Delhi will have a new Centre of Excellence (CoE) for football as a joint venture of Ministry of Sports, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and All India Football Federation (AIFF) as well as a CoE for swimming, which will be a joint venture of Ministry of Sports, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Swimming Federation of India (SFI). Today, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) circulated the message that ‘no new trainees' will be inducted under the Centre of Excellence scheme inn 2011-12 in any of the 12 centers across India, due to 40% cut in the sports development budget.

Opening up a new CoE is out of question, if that is the case. Under the CoE scheme, outstanding players in the age group of 19 to 25 years are provided sports training. Day boarding is also provided to some of the students. During Commonwealth Games 2010 preparations, India had suffered a great national shame as huge unnecessary expenses and shabby cover-ups were exposed by media one by one. These expenses have now translated into a financial crunch for SAI.

It seems that sports ministry is not in sync with SAI on how to implement CoE scheme and have taken the decision on its own. Now, the ministry officials insist that they will do everything to make the scheme work. If necessary, they may shut down some of the non-productive school schemes being offered by SAI and transfer their budget to the Centre of Excellence scheme.

The CoE for Football had been planned at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, where it was said there were enough facilities for playing football as well as a residential facility for those who need accommodation. The Shyama Prasad Mukherjee complex was being pitched as the CoE for swimming. Other CWG stadiums being operated by the Sports Authority of India, such as Karni Singh shooting range, Major Dhyan Chand hockey stadium, Indira Gandhi indoor stadium, the cycling velodrome, S P Mukherjee swimming pool, K D Jadhav wrestling stadium, and the IG sports complex, are also being opened to Delhiites under a programme called ‘Come and Play' to promote the sports culture in India as a nation.

‘Come and Play' allow interested candidates to register with SAI on first-come-first-serve basis and learn specific sports in the venues from trained coaches.

Source: Ruchi Shrimali (Shiksha Team)

Date: 16th April, 2011