Sports planning: Sri Lanka down under – Australia right on top
The value of coordination and communication of sports controlling bodies was highlighted by Alan Perera, a specialist in development and administration of the government of Australia in a workshop conducted for office bearers of national sports controlling bodies and the media at the Sports Ministry Auditorium.
Alan Perera - Pic by Ranjith Perera
Perera said that Australia and Sri Lanka are equal in population but when especially sports are concerned Australia is way ahead of Sri Lanka. Australian government always works for a set plan; it may be in sports or any other matter. There is coordination among every controlling body there in that country. The Australian administration always thinks to plan from the bottom.
Where athletics are concerned they start planning first from Asian level. When good results are produced in Asian level then the winners are groomed for Commonwealth level and then on performance at Olympic level. They are not that concerned in winning medals but they are very much concerned about losing and find cause for the defeats.
As an example he pointed out that Sri Lanka has a history of over 2500 years, but Sri Lanka had won only 14 gold medals where as Australia with a very much lesser history had won over two thousand medals at all levels internationally.
Going further in his speech Perera said that though there is a Sports Policy it is confined only into the cupboards and Sri Lanka is not having a proper system in sports development. Australian government is even concerned about the uniforms of their national squads. That is the very reason that the Australians always wear yellow and green uniforms to suit environment conditions.
With a smile on his face Perera said in the morning of the workshop he met a medal winning athlete in the lobby and had to come to know from the athlete that the Sports Ministry had donated a certain amount of money for winning. But Perera said that is not the policy of the Australian government. It pays money for the losers to encourage them in improving their skills, as well as for their nutrition, education and day to day expenses.
Speaking further on the development of sports he said Aussies always work for a strategic plan of twenty six sections namely: (1) Physical education (2) Junior Sports (3) High performance in sports (4) Sports Science and Sports medicine (5) Research and statistics (6) Talent identification (7) System of competitions (8) Coaching and officials (9) Accreditation system and human resource capacity building (10) Volunteers in sports (11) Management of sports associations (12) Rating system for sports associations (13) Club development (14) Recreation development (15) Infrastructure development (16) Women in sports (17) Disabled sports (18) Corporate sports (19) Master sports (20) Sports journalism advocacy and communication (21) Sportsmanship and marketing (22) Sports tourism and major events (23) Policy planning (24) Provincial corporation (25) Traditional sports and (26) Sports tourism.
Explaining all 26 areas of the plan he said a Strategic Plan could become a map showing the road to address shortcomings and guide to success. He spotlighted the need to investigate how strong or weak Sri Lanka is in all areas in sports and determine which areas to have priority.
On conclusion Perera said the importance of monthly meetings of all sports governing bodies will enable them to discuss the areas that need to find ways for improvement considering the ideas of the other members of controlling bodies.