Does National Sports need a Paradigm shift?
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Sri Lanka has all the potential to produce good administrators, not only sportspesons and sports teams
There is the new government in waiting! The horse trading appears to be a prolonged back-bending extraction and when it comes, we will see who will lead the engine of restructure; the buzz word in governmental preoccupation. The President is taking his time as he is wont to do and then for the duration of the current administration, it will be known who those in Camelot are?
It is likely that we will see a new Minister of Sports (and Youth Affairs) as it is normally bundled or will the incumbent continue as it is? As there is a plethora of former ministers in the cold without portfolio, the likelihood is that sports will be a convenient repository to park a cooperating party-man and give him the encumbrance of a state or deputy or both, the more the merrier!
Indeed, right now we have what is increasingly evident, two Ministers of Sports. We have the official appointee and the other, who masquerades as the Chairman of the National Sports Council (NSC). What our leaders will not concede is the concise version of a well-knit compact tour-de-force that will come to grips with what this nation sorely needs; governance in the truest sense of the word! But no, we must complicate our lives and have one for textiles, one for handlooms, one for batik and one for apparel. And so it can be for sports too; we can have one for cricket for sure, what with our lads having ridiculed the Indians who taught the Asia Cup was better fought for in the UAE, perhaps one for Paralympic sports now that we have giant beaters and another for women, just to underwrite a semblance of gender balance.
But to cut to the chase, it is no secret that our National Sports need a more intellectual thought process. The book has been written again and again on Sports Management and organisations such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expound its merits to all nations; global icons and ambitious minions. Fundamentally, sports is not any more a recreational good-feel occupation of a talented young man or woman whose exuberance produces an outstanding performance.
In today’s over-heated cauldron of international sports, an arduous soul consuming lifetime of excellence is demanded, where victory and defeat is measured in green backs and nothing less. For a relatively small nation like Sri Lanka, every triumph sedates the populace and sparks an evening of unbridled joy as we have seen, when we take a game to the wire and beat an entire continent to surrender.
What therefore should our Ministry of Sports (MoS) look like? Should it resemble the moribund old government departments of the 1960s, or should it enact a smart, dynamic new fountain of youth that can be let loose in search for excellence? Any management guru will tell you that such a transformation does not happen by accident. No amount of bureaucratic musical chairs will alleviate the need for hard-nosed structural reforms; as the saying goes nowadays, a system change is a veritable necessity!
If one were to suggest broad strokes of immediate resolution, one does not require the wisdom of an overseas consultancy to set the ball rolling. What it absolutely needs is a modicum of common sense and a surplus of genuine intent, something in pretty short supply in Diyawanna! A minister (and you don’t need two or multiple aides) must confront sports policy dictums and address the question that any venture does these days; it must define in clear-cut terms, what its Vision, Mission and Value system should pursue and target. The privileged ministry offices are adorned with these edicts but it is doubtful if the minister or any of his grossly extended team has an inkling what it proposes and sets out to do.
Therefore, a renewal of precise simplified mindset is basic to any such exercise. In ordinary terms; 1) National Objectives, 2) Organisational Structure, 3) Established Talent and 4) Desired Outcomes and 5) Periodic Evaluations. It should then take stock of the number of sports it is required to govern; 60 plus is pushing it? Should it play a regulatory role or exercise absolute control? It should redefine the role of its principal agencies, A) Sports Development, B) Sports Selection, C) Sports Council, D) Sports Science, E) Sports Medicine and the symbiotic relationship it has with the National Olympic Committee (NOC). These agencies must be structured so as to dovetail into the overall objectives of the policy framework. Each running away with its own agenda does not help. One can for example question the validity of the National Sports Council (NSC); what exactly is its purpose? It had an appendage called the High Performance Unit (HPU) under the tutelage of the former minister which showed early promise. The country meltdown may have decimated this important design of an elite sports model that focused on an international competitive benchmark. The composition of the NSC is vital for its intended purpose, if any? It appears that the Sports Development role has been delegated to the NSC; it had some serious talent at one stage but seems to have degenerated into another political pitch that claims to address a popular subject; bless you, corruption! Therein lies the crunch; is it a misinterpretation of purpose!
The MoS must draw on the expertise available at the NOC and the experience it derives from the IOC. It must also develop a stronger bond with the primary NFs and their masters, such as the ICC, FIFA, IAAF and so many world renowned bodies that run efficient and valuable sports models. Sports Management is at the heart of these organizations and while there is always a political motivation in their existence, the uncompromising quest for constant improved performance, never diminishes.
It may be timely for the MoS and NOC to establish a joint (out of the box) partnership to emphasise Excellence in Sports at the National Level. To achieve this objective ground up, it will have to impose a basic performance and grading criteria for all NFs; an A, B C classification to start with. It will then be able to allocate funds and other resources in order of merit, greatly enhancing the transparency factor. Such a model can be placed in a National Sports Web Portal that will capture time bound details of the NFs; their organisational structure, annual plans, periodic progress, high performance talent, comparative international standards, financial reports, etc., so that results and accountability become watchwords for regular evaluation. From that base can evolve a paradigm shift in our sports psyche. Welcome to a transformed Ministry of Sports!