Can the Blueprint unfold before it is too late?
National Sports Council (NSC) Chairman, the inimitable Mahela Jayawardene has repeatedly referred to a ‘Blueprint’ or ‘Masterplan’ for sports which most sports experts know is a long felt need, if we are to make a lasting impression in the coming years. The youthful Minister of Sports (MoS) that Namal Rajapaksa is, has crisscrossed the country, identifying pockets of resource development as well as the expertise required to exploit the inherent talent one finds in the rural mass.
No doubt one sees a rather enlightened approach to sports management with outstanding administrators and capable leaders assigned the task of designing and structuring the framework for a resurgent sports culture.
But as we all know, time is of the essence. Blueprints have been promised in the past and most of them have remained locked up in remote cupboards mired in a bureaucracy that is far flung from the places where sports abound: the playing fields, the beaten tracks and the hallowed venues of our island talent. Quite rightly, the powers that be have placed the sportsmen and sportswomen at the top of the agenda. They have identified and articulated that any sports development must benefit the performer in the first place and not the multitude of self-proclaimed administrators who by and large are looking out for themselves. This upside down mentality must be put to rest once and for all by a template of accountability for all to see. No hiding behind frivolous excuses must be tolerated anymore.
So how does one do that? To revert to a Blueprint or Masterplan, one must compel the National Sports Associations (NSA) to do their homework. They must have completed their own blueprint for 2021 and beyond by now, and that detailed plan must dovetail into the National Sports Plan for the future. A top-down approach defining the mandatories should have gone out to all NSAs, so that a bottom-up process just does not bottom off with ad-hoc, unhinged myopic ideas that are incoherent and unrealistic even before one can start. This column has for long advocated a National Sports Portal in which all NSAs must reside. These blueprints can be uploaded for all to see and examine, so that accountability for implementation becomes transparent and time bound. No more never-never daydreams that end up in ill-timed or ill-managed tours and dispirited sports souls.
There is therefore a measure of urgency attached to this process. However, well-meaning one is, the NSC Chairman should know that this is not a test match beset by rain. It must be a game with results and not a pie-in-the-sky rigmarole that no one can get a grip on. That is why the clamour for a more crisp MoS operation is vital. Paperwork as seen in the old administrative system must be overhauled to produce prompt responsive systems and lock jams must be prevented with decisive actions from the top. The MoS and NOC must cooperate and avoid duplication of efforts while retaining their specific mandates. The concept of a National Sports Authority is welcome but it must not become another labyrinth of bureaucratic slumber!
So, can we see the Blueprint Sir? Can the think-tanks around Independence Square get off their high-horses and sprint-the-talk! Can the bright sparks who adorn the NSC cut to the chase and submit specific plans for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in 2022 and the Olympics of 2024. Can we see a name–call of all national athletes and the sustenance that drives them to greater heights? Can we be privy to the provincial sports centres that are being identified and the designs surrounding it? Can we have a Corona-Ringed Sports Plan for 2021? Without national competitions deferred from 2020, progress will not be evident even in 2021. A MoS and MoH (Ministry of Health) plan must be put in place before it is too late. A blueprint should be on red-alert now, today!