Baskaran calls for proper sports infrastructure in India

CHENNAI, July 19 (UNI): Former hockey Olympian V Baskaran today said the billion people’s hopes of India winning an Olympic medal would not be realised unless proper infrastructure facilities were put in place for sportspersons.

Speaking after disributing scholarship awards to the tune of Rs 3.2 lakhs instituted by the SRM University to district toppers in various sports disciplines across Tamil Nadu, he said whenever Olympics were round the corner people talk of medal hopes.

“But not even one per cent of the one billion Indian population think of developing sports infrastructure in the country,” he said.

“Without creating proper infrastructure, how can one expect a medal in Olympics. If you do not have proper infrastructure, you cannot achieve anything. This is the point I had been harping on every forum, But I am yet to get an answer to this”, he remarked.

Speaking on the importance of combining biomechanics in sports to assess the strength and weaknesses of our sportspersons, he recalled how China produced 14 medal winners in Athens by including biomechanics guidelines.

“This time they (China) are hoping for many more medals”, he said and added, “there were no biomechanics guidelines for sportspersons in India.”

“The whole world is moving towards biomechanics and it’s high time India too gets into this to analyse the strength of sportspersons”, he said.

Pointing out that a majority of the Olympics medal winners in the United States were students of Georgia Tech, Baskaran said he could produce an Asian Games podium finisher from the batch of young scholarship award winners or from the SRM Group of educational institutions. “If the SRM University puts in place proper infrastructure, I will ensure an Asian Games medalist in 2022 from now on,” he said and assured to don any role in this regard for the University.

Responding immediately, University Chancellor T R Pachamuthu said the SRM University was prepared to engage Baskaran and utilise his services in realising the goal of producing a medal winner from SRM.

Commissioner of the newly formed Second Police Commissionerate for suburban areas and senior IPS official S R Jangid, who was the Chief Guest, lauded the role played by SRM in tapping talent and offering them scholarships, which should have been done by the Centre.

Mr Pachamuthu said the scholarship awardees would be given Rs 5,000 every year and after completing their plus two and if they chose to pursue sports, the doors of the SRM University were open. “We will provide them free education and mould them as medal winners,” he added.

SRM University Vice-Chancellor P Sathyanarayanan said education and sports were like two eyes and exhorted the students to excel both in education and sports.

He also announced the University plans to set up a sports academy and a world class airconditioned indoor stadium as part of its efforts to develop sports infrastructure.