'Pillars and goals model is the foundation': Telangana govt policy to inject new life into sports ecosystem; focus on state-level support

Time of India

6 days ago

Telangana's new Sports Policy, a significant upgrade from the 2016 version, aims for holistic sports development by addressing athlete identification, association support, and post-retirement pathways
HYDERABAD: At long last, the Telangana Sports Policy, which has been in the making ever since the sports loving chief minister A Revanth Reddy assumed charge, has seen the light of the day.
It's a clear step-up on the policy document of the state issued in Jan 2016.
It's a vision document that envisages a holistic development of sports and identifies the pitfalls that befall sport in the country at large. And it does well to address the issue of identifying and developing a sportsperson from scratch, the need for associations to work for a cause, the much-needed support structures to nurture, incentivise in keeping with the level of competition and bring them back into the ecosystem post-retirement.
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Pillar 1 deals with Governance and Organisation. Pillar 2 is about the Sports Ecosystem with focus on developing a sustainable ecosystem, drive accessibility and integrate sports into education. Pillar 3 is associated with Long-term Athlete Development (LTAD), including talent identification. Pillar 4 deals with Infrastructure and Pillar 5 caters to creating career pathways, post-retirement support, and upskilling and reskilling opportunities.
Governance and Organisation is a critical component in any sportsperson's development. The policy addresses the bane of rift-riven sports associations. To curb this menace of dissent and parallel association, the policy advocates a single registration process and licences for only associations recognised by relevant national federation. It also talks of regular audits and a consolidated annual tournament calendar integrated with the Chief Minister's Cup.
The proposed Sports Hub, to be administered by a board of governors, will oversee the Telangana Sports Development Fund (TSDF). Also on the anvil is the Young India Physical Education and Sports University of Telangana (YIPESU), which will be a state govt university.
The Young India Sports Academy (YISA) aims to be a high-performance sports development institute that will operate in a hub-and-spoke model. Its objectives include establishment of world-class academies in hockey, badminton, football, swimming, tennis, shooting, boxing, volleyball, wrestling, basketball, table tennis, athletics, archery and gymnastics.
Air sports, e-sports and pickleball are also under consideration.
YISA plans to provide a residential school setting to pursue sports and academics.
The state govt also wants to start a special zone for manufacturing sports goods in the state and the LTAD includes sports schools, school-level talent identification and residential school sport academies, Centres of Excellence (CoEs), sports science integration and mental health awareness, which has of late dominated the sports scene with top athletes taking mental health breaks.
The policy provides job opportunities as well as pensions for retired athletes and coaches. Graded incentives for athletes and coaches are also included. The policy is clear-cut, but implementation will be the real test. Just as there is a need for a new mindset for parents to push their wards into sport, there is an urgent need for reformation in administration. Casting the net wide is as important as not losing any athlete along the way.