Sports Authority of India (SAI) provided training facilities to Kerala’s international stars including Preeja Sreedharan and several others. File photoWith the hosting of the National Games, Kerala has added an impressive collection of arenas to its sports assets. The next step is to maintain and utilise them for the benefit of our sports talent. We need a bit of imagination and scientific methods to maintain the arenas and equipment. This calls for a discretionary approach.
Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) presence in Kerala becomes relevant in this aspect. Sportspersons in Kerala will benefit if these assets are put in the hands of SAI. Look at the synthetic hockey turf in Kollam. This requires about 20,000 litres of water per day for maintenance. SAI can do it. The hockey players in SAI in Kollam now practise elsewhere. They do not have a synthetic turf.
There is no cause of concern of a central government takeover just because SAI is a nodal agency of the centre. SAI’s aim is all-round development of sports in India. Its centres in Kerala are also being utilised by sportspersons not attached to it. Many of them won medals for Kerala in the National Games.
SAI’s sports stars had an impressive run at the games too. SAI contributed 192 members to the 744-strong Kerala contingent. That means, 26 percent of Kerala sports persons were trained under SAI. SAI stars also contributed 65 percent of Kerala’s gold medals. SAI provided training facilities to Kerala’s international stars including K.M. Beenamol, K.C. Lekha, Diju, Irfan, Tom Joseph, Mayookha Johny, Ranjith Maheshwari and Preeja Sreedharan. The number of national stars is even higher.
About 12,000 sportspersons train under at the SAI centres across India. About 2,000 of them are in Kerala. SAI has 72 centres in 10 sectors in India. With the Regional Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Lakshmibai National College for Physical Education (LNCPE) at Kariavattom, and centres in Kollam, Alappuzha, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Thalasseri, Kerala has the highest number of SAI centres.
SAI spends about Rs 1.25 lakh per year on the training and education of about 2,000 sportspersons in its centres. This also includes healthcare facilities, insurance, accommodation and food. There are 61 trainers across these centers in Kerala.
SAI has also adopted 19 educational institutions and provided facilities for the sportspersons there. Schools at Parali and Mundoor in Palakkad district, Mar Basil and St George schools and M.A. College at Kothamangalam are some of the 18 extension centres of SAI. The sportspersons in these schools and colleges get a sports kit and Rs 600 as stipend apart from sports equipment worth Rs 1 lakh per year, if they meet the criteria set by SAI.
Sports is a state subject, according to the Constitution. When Kerala government implements sports development projects, SAI can complement the efforts with its excellent training facilities.
(The writer is the principal of LNCPE, Thiruvananthapuram and the Kerala Regional Director of SAI)
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