NIS Patiala and SAI to part ways

New Delhi: Embarrassed over the recent doping scandals and the hockey impasse, the government on Wednesday decided to take some strong measures to tackle the vexed issues.

Sports minister Ajay Maken, who admitted that both the matters have dented India’s chances in the Olympics next year, has now proposed to demerge the National Institute of Sports (NIS) in Patiala from the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Maken said that the NIS Patiala would now be made an autonomous “institution of national importance” with the aim to produce better coaches and thereby reducing the dependence on foreign experts like the Ukrainian sprint coach Yuri Ogorodinik, who has recently been sacked for his alleged involvement in doping.

The minister informed that a bill will be introduced to this effect in the winter session of Parliament.

On hockey, Maken said he would make a last ditch effort to unite the two warring groups before placing the government’s views in front of the court of law.

“The talks, I feel, failed because of inflated egos. However, by Monday, I will again be meeting the Hockey India (HI) and Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) officials to try and solve the problem,” Maken said, adding he would not take any further initiative if the two bodies once again failed to reach an agreement.

On the issue of getting NIS freed from the clutches of SAI, Maken said it should not be seen as an indictment on the country’s apex sports body. “A decision to this effect was taken four months ago based on a report… However, the doping scandal certainly hastened the decision,” he said.

“From now on, the primary role for NIS will be to produce world class coaches for various sporting disciplines rather than the currently prevalent, dominant role of holding training camps for athletes,” Maken said.

The minister said once the bill passes, NIS will no longer be headed by an executive director. “It should be run by a senior person, who would be able to take the institute to greater level and produce world class coaches.”

A statistical survey conducted by the sports ministry showed that the MSc course in sports coaching had produced only 172 coaches in 27 years between 1980 and 2007.

People within the NIS, however, remained sceptical over the new move. “To reduce the influence of SAI would not really make an impact unless doping corruption is rooted out from within the NIS,” said a NIS official. “It is easy to talk about producing world class coaches but to build a faculty for that is a hard task,” he added.