In a boost to the Sports Ministry’s plan to establish specialised Olympic training centres, the cash-rich Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is mulling adopting ‘two-to-three’ sports’.
A Sports Ministry source told The Indian Express that corporate houses, PSUs and the BCCI are interested in funding some of the Olympic training centres dedicated to one sport each.
“The ministry is looking to create Olympic centres for every sport where it will identify 100 to 200 talented athletes across the nation and train them across different age groups for this Olympic cycle and the next Olympic cycle,” the source said.
“Today, there was a meeting of the sports minister with 58 corporates. They expressed their interest towards such an initiative. The likes of the BCCI are ready to take care of all the expenses of two or three sports,” the source added.
“BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla has expressed interest in developing Olympic training centres with no cost to the government. There are sports like baseball which are similar to cricket and the BCCI can do great work there,” the source said.
The BCCI has supported Olympic sports in the past with financial assistance to the Indian Olympic Association last year before the 2024 Paris Olympics. The board gave Rs 8.5 crore to the IOA for the preparations of the quadrennial event.
India has 23 National Centres of Excellence operated by the Sports Authority of India (SAI). However, only three of them are dedicated to one sport — Rohtak for boxing, Delhi for swimming and Delhi for shooting.
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Deliberation on OCI cardholders
The Sports Ministry is also considering the idea of roping in players of Indian origin to improve the standard of sports where India lacks considerable strength at the international level.
Particularly in Indian football, there is a school of thought about giving a chance to those who are Overseas Citizens of India (OCI). While OCI cardholders are allowed to live and work in India, they are not eligible to represent the country at the international level.
In 2008, then Sports Minister MS Gill formed a policy that allowed only Indian citizens to represent the country in international sporting events, making Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and OCI cardholders ineligible. The idea was to allow the growth of home-grown talent.
“We are looking to introduce a scheme where we allow OCI to represent the country, especially in sports where we are weak, such as football. There is no harm in reconsidering because we want the best of our talent to represent us,” a sports ministry official said.