K. ARUMUGAM

When he returned to Bihar after working for years on plum assignments, IPS officer Raveendran  Sankaran surprised his political masters when he requested a suitable posting in the Bihar State Sports Authority. After all, the posting was generally considered a punishment in the bureaucratic circle.

Raveendran, son of famous athletics coach Sankaran — he had taken his team to several Olympics — had a different take.

Raveendran (c) introducing Chief coach Harendra Singh (L) to Bihar Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar

Bihar has a tryst with history. Firstly, the Champaran agitation that gave birth to the Quit India Movement in 1940 and then the JP Movement that shook the political ecosystem in the 1970s. But it is the contribution to sport that contributes to a glittering chapter to the history of the state. For instance, a Bihari, Moinul Haq who, along with Tata, an iconic institution of yesteryear, helped the country run the Indian Olympic Movement in the 1930s. A string of athletes then carried that resolve into the Games proper.

Inspired by this heritage, Raveendran declared: “We want to bring back the sporting glory to Bihar.”

His logic and longing won the day — Raveendran was posted as the 19th Director General of Bihar State Sports Authority (KSSA).

The Chief Minister of Bihar Nitesh Kumar gave him a clear mandate which in his own words are: “Revive the sports legacy of Bihar. Our State players should be in the running at the next Olympics.”

Having got what he wanted, the former volleyball player adopted the out-of-the-box approach to sports promotion, and that, from scratch. The results, three years on, are there for everyone to see.

Crowd took the centre stage at Rajgir

When he took charge, this organization with a mandate of providing sports facilities and promotional aspects had a budget of a mere Rs 30 Crore! Now, after two and half years, it stands at a whopping Rs 680 Cr!

Within this time, Bihar sports had taken a quantum jump marked by logarithmic growth and in its wake has set a majestic and purposeful sports complex in Rajgir, a historic city about 110 km south of Patna. It is spread over 500 acres, houses infra for 20 plus sports — an athletic track, indoor sports facilities, swimming pools, synthetic hockey turfs while cricket and other sports infra are in an advanced stage of construction.

The complex has created a buzz and has evinced the level of interest that other states had shown when Raveendran presented the Bihar Sports Development Model in Chintanvir conclave in Manipur last year.

The Rajgir Sports Complex (RSC), of which Raveendran is CEO, will house inter alia Bihar Sports University.

“The hardware is ready. We are working on software now,” says Raveendran in his inimitable style. Besides, infrastructure for housing top talents to stay, practice and polish their skills are being created. Hostels for every sport have been built or are in the last phase of completion.

“I am not interested in creating mammoth stadiums which later on became white elephants. We seek stadiums of needed size and capacity, not show pieces”, says conceptually correct Raveendran.

Bihar is one of the most populous states in India and with one of the highest percentages of youth in the country. Anything being done to improve the lot of sports and provide an opportunity for the youth to focus and progress, is a welcome step.

It happens when the top boss becomes best fan

Raveendran throws light on Bihar’s resolve for sport: “Our Youth needs our support. The past doesn’t count. We have now got political will, patronage as our Honorable Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has a blueprint with a vision.” He elaborates on the CM’s plan: “A couple of our players in the LA Olympics, and medallists in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics.”

Some of the game-changing policies were introduced, two of which warrants attention — sports scholarship and employment opportunities.

The scholarship has three grades: 1. Prerna, 2. Saksham (for national level players) 3. Utkar (for international athletes) offering Rs 3 lakh, 5 lakh and 20 lakh respectively.

Another significant step is ‘Medal lao, naukri pao (bring medals, get jobs)’.

“This turned out to be a hit for a variety of reasons. All the medal winners must do is upload their medal certificates and the government does the rest. Earlier it used to take 2-3 years for a medallist to get a government job. Now, it’s a matter of 2-3 months from uploading certificates. This year alone, about 70-plus proven medallists got jobs! Not just low-grade but gazetted officers, one-third directly as inspectors. This must surely have been a dream come true for beneficiaries,” he revealed.

Rajgir Crowd

These two policies — scholarships and jobs– caused a turnaround in a short spell. “We just put back the derailed train (sports) back on track in the last three years. The next task is to run it efficiently to reach the destination (participation in the Olympics and producing Olympic medallists). “Once we start the train, we are sure we will make it run like a bullet train,” Raveendran enthused.

“Ours is a team. Our vision is to make Bihar a superpower of the entire Eastern Zone.”

Would then entail overcoming established powers like Odisha? Pat comes the answer. And it’s in the negative. “No. No. We are focusing on talent scouting not building white elephants,. “We will go for low-cost infra, medium seating capacity. This hockey stadium for example. It can seat only 3,200. But the turf is of international standard. This is what we want to do. Our focus is talent scouting, making them perform at a higher level, not just use-and-waste white elephants”.

The talent scouting Raveendran mentions is not an empty talk. A gigantic Mashal  program is on the anvil, about which we will come out with a detailed dispatch shortly.