Constitute State Sports Authority To Maximise Benefit OF Sports Infrastructure

Bhupinder Singh

(The writer is a national athletics trainer)

Awareness for sports needs to be spread among masses to improve the condition of sports in Himachal. Besides this, need for constitution of State Sports Authority to run sports infrastructure properly here is also being felt now. The credit for erecting world class sports infrastructure goes to former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. During his tenure, modern sports infrastructure was constructed for various sports in different districts of the state.

Playfields for kabaddi, volleyball and badminton was provided by ensuring wooden flooring in the indoor stadiums. But no employee is available for the maintenance of this world class sports facility. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh after assuming power had announced to constitute sports authority but no such movement is visible on the surface. No doubt, there is state Youth Services and Sports Department, which is responsible for youth activities and promotion of sports in the state. It has employed more than 50 trainers of different sports, but barring few,  trainers are far from playgrounds. The job of sports department trainers is to carry forward the sports training programmes. But their role has been confined to departmental sports fairs. Continuous training programmes hardly might be running in any part of the state except one or two places.

The two sports hostels at Bilaspur and Una are in poor condition. In fact, the Una Sports Hostel for boys might have hardly produced any national level winner. However, girls from Bilaspur sports hostel have succeeded to reach to international level in Kabaddi. Talented young players are admitted in sports hostels of Himachal after passing different tests, but they were seen struggling even in state level games. Trainers serving here are mainly responsible.

Punjab established Punjab Sports Institute when the condition of sports was deteriorating there. And now, Punjab once again is shinning in sports. Punjab government sharpened their sports training programme by hiring best trainers having international level experience. Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and other states are also following the same course to improve the sports performances of their respective states. Time has come that Himachal government should also constitute state sports authority to focus on sports training programmes. Experienced trainers should be hired under the authority to maximise the benefit of modern sports infrastructure constructed at the cost of several crores. The state government will have to take an initiative to polish the sports talent available in abundance in the state. The players too will give their one hundred percent when the state government provides the requisite sports facilities.

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