Restructuring SAI, one-state-one-sport, and other key recommendations of the Olympic Task Force

Restructuring of the Sports Authority of India, appointing a steering committee and global experts for the Tokyo Olympics, and employing one-state-one-sport policy were one of the many recommendations listed by the Olympic Task Force in a report released on Friday.

The eight-member Olympic Task Force, which includes Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, India’s national badminton coach P Gopichand, and former India hockey captain Viren Rasquinha, have released a “Comprehensive Actionable Report on India’s Preparation for 2020, 2024 and 2028 Olympics”.

Specifying that India’s success in Olympic sports so far has been delivered despite the system in place and not because of it, the task force said that its members “are unanimous that there are far too many gaps” in the country’s sporting administrative structure. “There can be no transformational change in Indian sporting results unless the whole system that controls Indian sports is overhauled ruthlessly to plug these gaps,” the report said.

The task force said that India’s sporting system “must be fundamentally reshaped and fine-tuned into one that is singularly athlete-centric, coach-led and systems-driven”. The report called for rebooting the entire sporting system “to ensure the primacy of athletes and their coaches as the focal point of every action”.

The task force said its vision was to develop a national culture of sports and win at least 20 medals at the 2028 Olympics.

Here are the key recommendations listed in the report:

Redefine role of SAI

The report said that the Sports Authority of India should only be responsible for running academies of excellence for elite athletes comprising players above the age of 17 who are in the train-to-compete and train-to-win stage. SAI should also create an Athlete Development Board “to ensure the well-being of athletes, grievance-redressal and post-retirement benefits”, the report added.

SAI should also develop sports science expertise and research in the academies, and create a Knowledge Commission for Sports “for a digital repository on sports infrastructure, equipment and standardization, development and dissemination of various SOPs, rate contracts and an athlete management portal”.

The report also called for SAI to be professionalised by ending government deputations and have financial autonomy. “Instead of deputing government officers to SAI, the new [body] would be fully professionalised, and only specialists on contractual basis with clearly defined deliverables shall be appointed on the board and all functions down the line,” the report said.

Steering committee for Tokyo 2020

The Olympic Task Force called for the creation of an Empowered Steering Committee for the 2020 Olympics Games. This committee would “drive all the initiatives being recommended and be responsible for the proper preparation for the Games”. The report also called for setting up a a new legal entity to manage Olympic preparation, which would replace the steering committee once it is formed.

The task force also said that reputed global experts or consultants should be appointed for the 2020 Games and beyond. The consultants would “oversee preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and beyond and advise on various components of the training”. These consultants would also assist the steering committee. The task force also asked for National Sports Regulatory Board to be set up to regulate all stakeholders.

Coach development

Coaches should be classified as grassroots, intermediate and elite, the report said. “In the event of an athlete winning a major title, “all those involved in the athlete’s training from grassroots level onward should be recognised and rewarded”. The salary of Indian coaches should also be at par with educationists, the report added. A chief coach’s salary “should be equivalent to that of the vice chancellor of a university”. The task force also asked for the removal of a salary cap for Indian coaches and said that they should be treated “at par with foreign coaches”.

The task force also said that a Coach Development Board must be created under the overall umbrella of the NCPLS, but it should be an autonomous unit. This board will “be responsible for defining and executing the National Coach Development Program” and undertake all activities responsible for the development of existing and new coaches. The board would also “provide for professional growth of physical literacy instructors and coaches” who will ensure that Indian coaches remain at par with the rest of the world.

Physical literacy

The task force recommended setting up a new autonomous body called the National Council for Physical Literacy and Sports. This body would be responsible for sports education and training and must be set up under the Indian government’s Department of Sports, the report said.

The NCPLS shall be an independent regulator and “be responsible for curriculum design, selection procedures, prescription of physical and human resources essential for schools and colleges of physical literacy”. The body will comprise elite athletes, coaches, sports educationists and proven administrators with fixed tenures of six years and one-third of the members retiring every two years.

Data collection

The task force proposed that a National Sports Repository System be created “where everything to do with an athlete is available”, including their performance record, training, funds used, injuries, notes from coaches and notes about coaches. The information could also be linked to Aadhaar, the report said.

There is no real coordinated approach available that uses technology to monitor everything related to athletes currently, according to the report. “At present, the data generated by one organisation is not available to the others and not even to the players and coaches in most cases,” the report said.

“It is often managed independently by the players, their coaching staff and/or related organisations. Sharing such information would help performance assessment and comparison with the benchmarks by various stakeholders, apart from creating institutional memory.This will also help track the journey of the player, research, reduction of age fraud and avoid duplication of funding (by central/state government, NGOs, and corporates).”

One state, one sport

The task force asked for state governments to play a more proactive role in promoting and developing sports. “Most states have yet to develop a system and provide adequate attention to develop physical literacy, sporting culture and handling elite players,” the report said.

One of the ways to do this is for states to pick at least one Olympic sport and publicly share measurable plans towards achieving excellence in that sport, the report said. Each state must also, with help from the private sector, open residential academies of excellence in the selected sports, form a high performance training center, and set up at least one sports science facility. States must also run coach education programmes and conduct seminars and conferences for knowledge dissemination, the report said.

The state governments should also handle the development of motor skills and physical literacy, grassroots talent identification, basic training in sports, community sports, grassroots and development coach training program, infrastructure, and school competitions .

The task force asked for sports to be moved from the state list to the concurrent list, wherein both the state and central government will have the power to legislate on it. “This will also allow the central government to create a common framework for the sports ecosystem within the country even as we strive to preserve local sporting cultures,” the report said.

Other key recommendations

• Make five Physical Education, or PE, periods per week mandatory for each child, along with 90 minutes of active play per day for each child.
• Make hosting of national games mandatory every two years.
• Have 650 district-level sports schools (one in each district) to nurture grassroots talent.
• A stipend of Rs 6 lakh per annum for elite potential athletes till 2020 and identified athletes beyond that. State governments should give a scholarship of Rs 1.5 lakh per annum to 1,000 aspiring champions.
• According to government guidelines, there is a provision of sports quota recruitment upto 5%. The word “upto” should be removed, meaning there has to be a 5% minimum reservation under the sports quota. The state government should also mandate 3% sports quota recruitment.  

The Olympic Task Force was appointed by the Indian government in January this year “to recommend systematic steps for improved Indian performances at the 2020, 2024 and 2028 Olympics and to create a roadmap for realising the huge potential of Indian sports”. The task force was set up after India’s “disappointing” haul of two medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

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