New Delhi: Expressing dissatisfaction about the preparation for Commonwealth Games 2014 at Glasgow and Asian Games 2014 at Incheon, Seoul, Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Jitendra Singh, directed that a Steering Committee headed by Secretary (Sports) be set up and meet every week to review the progress of training sportsperson in each discipline by rotation.
“This system would hold till the conclusion of Commonwealth Games,” he said.
In a a meeting held on August 5 with the officers of SAI, the Sports Minister also directed that a Chief Coach along with his support staff be appointed for each discipline and their team should be entrusted with the responsibility for coaching of probables.
It was also decided that top up training needs of individual sportsperson would be identified and be funded from the NSDF. However, the main expenditure of training of sportsperson would be from the plan head - Assistance to NSFs. Director General, SAI was asked to provide estimates of expenditure to that suitable provisions could be made for training of sportsperson.
It was decided at the meeting that scientific data on all probables would be periodically collected and provided to the coaches so that they could tailor the coaching programme to the play parameters of each sportspersons.
The Minister was concerned that India would stand to loose at least 30 medals in the next Commonwealth Games due to the exclusion of sports discipline like Archery, Greco Roman Wrestling, Team events in shooting etc. These constituted more than 30 per cent of the total medals won by India in the Commonwealth Games 2010 at New Delhi.
The Minister desired to know how this decision to exclude these events was taken some two years back without the views of India being properly articulated. The Minister directed Secretary (Sports) to take up the matter at the highest level with the Commonwealth Games Secretariat. The exclusion of these events will severely impact India's overall standing in the medals position in the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow in 2014. In comparison, the number of events dropped from the Asian Games 2014 is far less and consists mainly of non-field events like Chess, Billiards, Snooker etc.
