Hike fine, but sports nurseries ‘needed to produce champs’

Shimla: In a big incentive to sportspersons, the state government will offer higher cash awards than Haryana, the sports powerhouse of the country, to the medallists in top international competitions.

By enhancing the cash award to Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 2 crore for gold, silver and bronze medal, respectively, in Olympics, the cash award is nearly the same as Haryana, which offers Rs 6 crore for gold, Rs 4 crore for silver and Rs 2.5 crore for bronze.

In the case of Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, the state will offer higher cash awards than Haryana. As compared to Haryana’s Rs 3 crore for gold, Rs 1.5 cr for silver and Rs 75 lakh for silver in Asian Games (offered to the last Asian Games medallists), Himachal will offer Rs 4 core for gold, Rs 2.5 for silver and Rs 1.5 crore for bronze. The cash awards for Commonwealth Games, too, have seen a huge hike with gold fetching Rs 3 crore, silver Rs 2 crore and bronze Rs 1 crore as compared to Haryana’s Rs 1.5 crore for gold, Rs 75 lakh for silver and Rs 50 lakh for bronze.

While welcoming the hike in cash awards, the sports fraternity feels a lot more needs to be done to produce the players who could actually go on to win the medals in top international sports and claim the lucrative cash awards. At the moment, the state is among the laggards in sports, which is reflected in the state’s performance in National Games and nationals of individual events.

“The hike in cash awards will act as a big incentive to sportspersons to pursue sports and give their best. However, we can’t produce champions just with huge cash awards. We will need to build academies and sports nurseries to produce champion players,” said Rajesh Bhandari, secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Olympics Association. “Besides, the sports association should be provided enough budget to help them organise national-level events in the state,” he said.

A national-level player pointed out widespread shortage of coaches in the state. “If there isn’t adequate number of coaches, it’s impossible for players to train and improve,” he said. A retired coach felt the decision to construct nine indoor stadiums, for which the work will start this year, would help sports and sportsperson more than hefty cash awards. “If these indoor stadiums are actually constructed, a lot more children will start getting into sports. We need to build sports culture at grassroots level, which can be built through a good network of sports facilities,” he said.