This has reference to the Editorial ‘14 years too short to host National games’ (Herald, June 19) regarding the often postponed 36th National Games. I was present at the Annual General Body Meeting of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in 2008, when Digambar Kamat, presented Goa’s bid to host the National Games. The proposed main venue for the games was the ecologically fragile fields near Four Pillars in Panjim. Better sense prevailed and after briefly toying with the idea of having the games at Dhargal, it was decided to hold the Games at multiple venues. After examining the ground realities, the Sports Minister Govind Gaude has requested the IOA to postpone the 36th National Games by six months.
With the amount of money already spent and the projected expenditure working out to over Rs 500 crore, it is important to evaluate if hosting the National Games, without a legacy plan, will be beneficial to Goan sports.
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A visit to various venues where the National Games have been held in the past will bring to light the decaying infrastructure which was built at huge cost by the Government of the host State. Velodromes, indoor stadiums, and even the main stadiums that were built as the venues for the opening, closing ceremonies and the athletic events are grossly under-utilised. Thanks to the Indian Super League and other football events, the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad and the I. G. Stadium in the outskirts of Guwahati are now being used regularly. Even in Goa massive infrastructure that was built to host the now defunct Lusofonia Games, is mostly used for non-sporting events. Fortunately, Goa being a football hub, the football infrastructure is being fully utilised. Although, even the use of these facilities, being high-priced, are out of bounds to the local clubs and players and are primarily leased to football teams from outside the State.
Whenever a sporting event is held, the host State is always expected to perform creditably and bring home a sizable number of medals. Speaking to various athletes and administrators this seems to be highly unlikely. The dismal performance in the recently concluded Khelo India Youth Games, in Haryana, where Goa stood 25th in the medal tally, does not augur well for the future. States like Haryana and even a small State like Manipur are now producing Olympic medal winners. Whilst Goa has fallen behind even in our State Sport, football, where we could not qualify for the Final Rounds of the Santosh Trophy, with an unprecedented defeat at the hands of the Gujarat football team.
When bidding to host huge sporting events, the Government and the State Associations should prepare a plan to train athletes and sportspersons so that they are serious contenders to win medals at the event. A portion of the massive budget earmarked for building the infrastructure and conducting the event, should be set aside to identify and train the athletes and prepare the teams, according to the best practices followed by the successful States in India and the rest of the World.
Poor performance by our ill prepared athletes and sportspersons will be an embarrassment to Goa and Goans.
Hope the Goa Government and the Sports Minister look into this and take appropriate action.
