In a meeting with National Sports Federations (NSFs) on Tuesday, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has discussed ways for the return of competitive events in the country from August onwards. He has asked them to propose smaller league-based events that can be held in stadiums without spectators and broadcast live on television.
Rijiju told federations to speak to “league managers and propose a few events that can be organised in each sport in the coming months.”
“Given the situation, we have to be innovative about events. We may need to hold smaller events in stadias and not have spectators. But we can surely try and beam the sports on television channels and social media platforms. The resumption of sporting events will boost the confidence of our athletes and also create an atmosphere of normalcy in these trying times. We can plan some events August onwards,” said Rijiju in a statement after meeting officials of 15 NSFs and IOA president Narinder Batra.
The minister said the time is right to slowly open up sports while following safety protocols. “Since federations are best qualified to decide the way forward for each sport, the ministry would like to get ideas from federations. The Sports Ministry will review all the ideas and work in tandem with federations to open up sports. I feel from August onwards we should be able to start some sporting events as well.”
During the meeting the federations raised the fear of losing sponsors and have asked for a financial package from the government which is beside the grant given in Annual Competition and Training Calendar (ACTC).
{{/usCountry}}During the meeting the federations raised the fear of losing sponsors and have asked for a financial package from the government which is beside the grant given in Annual Competition and Training Calendar (ACTC).
{{/usCountry}}“There are several costs that federations have to manage through sponsors and the situation is so bad that we are already getting feelers from our sponsors that funding will be slashed. All the federations are facing similar problems,” said a federation official.
“Under the circumstance, beginning of competition in two months’ time looks a tough task because we need to sponsors for that. Also the Olympic-bound athletes are yet to start training. Those who will appear for qualification events are also training at home,” he added.
While the ministry has come up with standard operating procedures to begin training of athletes, national camps of elite athletes in most disciplines are yet to start. The SAI centres in Patiala and Bengaluru have begun training for athletes who were in isolation since the lockdown but no other national camps have started. National camps in boxing, badminton, table tennis, cycling, wrestling, shooting are yet to start due to various reasons. In some cases, NSFs are awaiting clearances from state governments while in others athletes are reluctant to join the camp.