What’s the story?
Legendary Indian cue player, Pankaj Advani strongly feels that India is in a dire need of an athlete-centric sports policy for achieving professionalism in Indian sports. Advani, who was present at the 3rd Kolkata Open National Invitation Snooker championship, stressed for developing and formulating a comprehensive sports code for the country that supports the athletes in the best possible manner.
“The only thing I can say is that the day our sports policy revolves around athletes and athletes alone is when we can expect professionalism in sports in India. Until then don’t expect…champions coming out of the system as part of a structured policy.” Advani said at the Press Conference before the event.
The sixteen-time world champion had earlier advocated for a change in perception of the people as to how they view sports in India. He believed that focus should be given to the overall performance of the sportsperson and not only a few major tournaments.
“I definitely feel there is a big difference in the way we celebrate achievements in quadrennial events compared to those in year in and year out. I am not complaining. This is our perception. If we have to change our perception, we have to look at sports from a different angle.”
In case you didn’t know...
Recently the Supreme Court came out hard on the BCCI after it sacked the president Anurag Thakur and its secretary Ajay Shirke from their respective posts after they failed to implement the reforms suggested by the Lodha panel. This prompted a demand for increased transparency and good governance in other sport organisation bodies as well which have been reeling under the effects of corruption and mismanagement for a while now.
The heart of the matter
The 31-year-old cueist said that sports organisations also play an important role in producing athletes for the country and they should change their functioning and approach to produce champions regularly.
According to him, an athlete’s hard work and dedication should be supported by a strong sports policy and disciplined functioning of sports organisations for India to become a sporting superpower.
Sportskeeda’s take
Increased cases of corruption and fraud in the Indian sports organisations have affected not only the sportspersons but has also dented India’s image at the global level. Advani’s call for having a sports policy that revolves around athletes will help in supporting their efforts and also improve the sports administration in the country.
