Special Story:- “Winning and Championships are memorable but they come from the strength of relationships’’
As you know these days Sports Federation/ Associations are in national news due to some allegations made by the International wrestlers against their Federation President. Certainly one cannotdraw any conclusion without verifying the facts and the Sports Ministry/ Governmentis going to set up an Inquiry Committee for time bound probe andtaking suitable action to address the grievances of these International players. The allegations of molestations, sexual harassment, corruption, cheating, and beating reports have surfaced time to time in the public domain against the coaches and officials of the Associations/Federations but no concrete action have been taken tofinally curb these menaces.Presently, the Central government as well as the State Government is doing a great job for the promotion of sports these days by establishing the various Sports University, building sports infrastructure in the district level and taking the advices/inviting active participation of National, International players, coaches and experts as a result of which phenomenal development is witnessed in the field of sports at the grass root level.
As a player I have closely seen the working of Associations and coaches in the area of sports and met and witnessed some great coaches and sports administrative officials who have dedicated their entire life for the development and welfare of sports. But the crux of the problem is staying at the top post of the federation for the longer period and many a timesthe officials only leave theirpositions for their ownkin, relative or for their close associates so that they can operate from behind the scene, thus we have to see how the longer span is going on. The National Association/ Federation is affiliated with the International Federation and National Association give the affiliation to State Association and the State give the affiliation to District and District select their head on the basis of voting from their committee and as per my experience and information in all these affiliations extreme loyalty is the main criteria rather then the merit. The District Association select the Official of State and the State give their vote to select the head of national Association/ Federations, the interesting thing is that these heads of National to Districts are selected by voting among themselves. So after becoming head of any Association/ Federation the first important thing is to make the loyal person in the lower Federation and the second work is to make their federation with full of loyal supporters rather than any sports enthusiast. If the official of any lower federation try to fight the election of higher up than the chances are bright that their Federation may be disaffiliated on so many frivolous grounds and the new affliction will be given to other committee. This is the main reason that the Association are headed by the same family or group by so many years either from the front or behind the scene and once any person gets the highest post of any Federation they don’t want to easily leave the same. To my understating officials of the Federations feels like a feather in a cap and glorified in the public domain.
The tournaments at the District level to the International level are being organised by these Associations, different level of teams selected by these federations and main work of these Association is to promote their game and subsequently take their game to the masses at their territorial jurisdiction. Further also to encourage the peoples to come towards the game as the development of place and pride of peoples are related with sports. The sports persons are heroes and ambassadors of their District/State/ Country, the responsibly of these Federations are to build up a clean and positive environment so that more and more peoples join sports. If the loyalty will be the merit for these Association than the very cause of sports will be compromised, therefore the merit and selection of the genuine person should be the main criteria for becoming the Official of any Federation/ Association rather the loyalty.Only thereafter the right atmosphere of sports shall be created throughout the country and efforts and objectives put up by the Government for the promotion of the Sports will be truly achieved which will definitely bring our country at par in the International sports arena.The great Basketball Coach Jim Calhoun said “Winning and Championships are memorable but they come from the strength of relationships’’
Auther:-Tahir Malik
National Level Tennis Player
