Change in mindset essential for sports progress: Panel

THRISSUR: Changing the mindset of people, especially parents, is essential for the state to excel in sports and athletics, said Kerala State Sports Commission chairman A K Pandya. Talking to reporters here on Wednesday he said that one of the important reasons for the state lagging behind in sports and athletics is the lack of efforts to groom sports and athletics persons at the school and college level. It is because of the reluctance of parents to allow their children to take part in sports and athletics after a certain age. He said that this mindset of parents should change for the state to progress in sports and athletics.

Pandya said that integrating sports and athletics with education right from primary school-level is essential for grooming sports and athletics persons in the state. He said that necessary infrastructure for sports should be created in schools and colleges for the purpose.

He said that the commission has been assigned the task of studying all aspects of sports and athletics in the state and make recommendations. He said that the Commission would hold sittings in all the districts to elicit views from sportsmen, organisations, clubs, heads of various educational institutions, teachers and parents. As part of this programme, the Commission had its sitting here on Wednesday and during the sitting it received over 20 memoranda for consideration.

Pandya, who is also the consultant to the Indian Olympic Association, said that the State Government had appointed a six-member commission headed by him to study the subject and make recommendations within six months and the Commission is hopeful of completing the assignment within the stipulated period.Answering a query, he said that Indian hockey had its best days even before the Independence. But it lost its glory in the subsequent years due to various reasons. He said that Indian hockey had is best days when it was played in grass grounds. However the system changed from the grass spread ground to synthetic.

Hockey being a game of speed and skill, despite the skill Indian players could not cope with the speed required for playing in synthetic grounds. He said that another reason for Indian hockey to lose its glory was the disappearance of clubculture in India after the Independence.He said that the club-culture facilitated good training to players for inter-club and other competitions.