Its Wednesday evening and in the practice grounds of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in central Delhi,a group of boys and young girls begin to limber up. The young athletes are part of the ambitious Come and Play scheme wherein swanky sports stadiums built for the 2010 Commonwealth Games were made available for public use - launched by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs in the summer of 2011. At that time,coaches say around 700 registrations were received a huge number for athletics.However when Sportline visited the JLN stadium there were only 40 athletes training. Its clear that the scheme that began with much fanfare has tailed off a year down the line. The reasons cited for this dramatic attrition is the fact that there is no equipment-and support facilities available for athletes. Hurdles for athletes Devesh Kumar,a middle distance runner said,All we have here is a track,there is nothing else. Our coaches have told us that it is important for us to have regular access to the gym if we want to perform at a higher level but there are no facilities here,not even hurdles for the the hurdlers. Rashmi Kakkar,a parent whose ward has been attending the coaching program since its inception said,I am amazed that such a big stadium does not have a gym. All that the coaches can do is ask us to perform cardiovascular exercises and endurance training. The unavailability of equipment at the stadium has tied their hands. Nothing to attract talent A coach who did not wish to be named said,We had a tremendous response when this scheme started. Now athletes come for a couple of weeks and then disappear. We cant blame them because here with no equipment we cannot go past a certain level. The coach further added,The ministry and SAI want us to identify future talent,however with people coming in and leaving every day,it has become hard to carry out. We have nothing to attract the youngsters. P C Kashyap,SAI executive director (TEAMS division),says that while problems undoubtedly exist there had been several positives as well. We have achieved a lot since the start of this scheme. Earlier we only had seven or eight people training but since this scheme has started we have a much bigger talent pool. The equipment crunch is due to a lack of funds. There have been no specific budgetary allocations for the purchase of equipment for stadiums under the Come and Play scheme however we are working to rectify this problem.
