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This is an archive article published on July 6, 2018
Perform or face the axe: SAI director general Neelam Kapur’s notice to foreign coaches
It has learnt that foreign coaches with the athletics teams among the ones will come under scanner following the Asian Games.
SAI will run a proper review of coaches and athletes following the Asian Games. (Source: Twitter)
Claiming that ‘some coaches’ have been put on notice following a review of the Commonwealth Games, Sports Authority of India (SAI) director general Neelam Kapur has said a ‘thorough review’ will be conducted on the performance of all foreign trainers after next month’s Asian Games. Based on that, the non-performing coaches can be removed from the position, she added.
Kapur said the review is necessary to ensure accountability on coach’s part. It has learnt that foreign coaches with the athletics teams among the ones under scanner. “After Commonwealth Games we had put some coaches on notice. As of now, we have not thrown out any foreign coach but we have told some of them that we are watching you,” she said, without divulging the particulars.
“If we are spending a lot of money on foreign coaches, they are accountable to us and they have to give results. If a federation says a coach is doing good, we will go by it. But we will have a thorough review and non-performing foreign coaches will have to go.”
Not just the coaches, the beneficiaries under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) will also be reviewed after the Asian Games, Kapur said. As on June 27, 188 athletes are being funded are TOPS. That number, Kapur hinted, will be cut drastically after the Asiad. “We will have an entire restructuring of the TOP Scheme. First, we will have a complete review of the beneficiaries after the Asian Games. Many of them are there in the list in view of the Asian Games,” Kapur said.
SAI, whose name will be changed to Sports India, has also decided to increase the payscale of the coaches employed at its academies, bringing them on par with the national coaches. At present, the highest slab for academy coaches is Rs 1 lakh. Under the revised structure, it will be doubled to Rs 2 lakh. “It will be on par with what a national coach earns. But these will be according to experience and expertise. We are professionalising the whole structure,” Kapur said.
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