Sports Ministry issues guidelines for coaching camps

New Delhi, Sep 20 (UNI) The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has issued detailed guidelines for efficient management of coaching camps, selection of coaches and selection of athletes.

This follows the government's acceptance of the recommendations put forward by TS Krishna Murthy's enquiry report who was appointed to examine the circumstances and issues connected with the dope testing of weightlifter L Monika Devi.

In order to put this recommendation into operation, the Sports Ministry has sent a communication to the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and presidents and secretary generals of all National Sports Federations (NSF).

The ministry has directed the SAI to work out a detailed yearly calendar of coaching camps in consultation with the NSF concerned, before January 31 every year. This calendar should be based on the Long Term Development Plan (LTDP) for that discipline, and should be in consonance with the international/national calendar of events in that discipline. In case the coaching camp is being conducted by the NSF concerned, the same guidelines shall be applicable to them as well.

The calendar of events so prepared, should contain detailed information about dates and period of coaching camp, venue number of players likely to attend the camp, coaches and supporting personnel staff.

The yearly requirements of food supplements, equipments (consumable/non-consumable) training kits, should also be worked out while preparing the yearly calendar.

It shall be the responsibility of SAI and NADA, to ensure that random dope tests are conducted in each camp as per the guidelines.

A panel of coaches and supporting personnel including doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists, physiologists, scientific officers, masseurs etc shall be prepared and made a part of the LTDP.

The national coach shall be selected by a selection committee with President of the NSF concerned as its Chairman, DG(SAI), ED(TEAMS), one ex-international players (preferably Arjuna Awardee or international medal winner), to be nominated by the government, and the nominee of IOA from the panel prepared by the SAI.

The Selection Committee, in consultation with the National coach, shall choose other members of the coaching team.

While selecting the team for participation in any international event it shall be ensured, that only those coaches/supporting personnel are selected, who have been with the team during the coaching camp on continuous basis.

The proceedings of the selection should spell out in detail, the selection criteria, the past performance of the players, and their performance in the selection trials.

The team once finalised for a particular event shall not be changed under any circumstances, unless warranted by unavoidable situations with due justification and the changes shall be informed to all concerned.

The NSFs shall keep the performance of each athlete on its web site. This should be updated at least once a month along with rankings, if applicable.

The athlete once selected for a team, shall be treated with utmost dignity. In case of any doubt arising, the athlete has to be taken into confidence. Proper appeal mechanism shall be put in place, to ensure proper and timely redressal of their grievances.

The government's communication also clarifies that as specific provisions exist in the Scheme for preparation of teams for Commonwealth Games 2010, matters connected with management of coaching camps, selection of coaches, selection of core probables would continue to be governed by the provisions of the scheme.

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