A reader response to ‘Sports – Whose business is it?’

The first article under the Business of Sports column titled ‘Sports – Whose business it?’ published on 10 August elicited many responses. Here is one interesting comment from a reader:

I think the above article published in your papers today is timely and greatly appreciated by ardent sports followers such as myself.

In today’s professional sporting landscape, the role of administration plays a huge part if sustainable success is to be achieved. In this respect the part of the article which states that ‘a strong case that the Minister must only be concerned about policy and not get involve in administration’ is a very important statement.

The biggest problem in sports administration in this country (and dare I say in other forms of public administration) is the lack of accountability, which the article has tried to address by suggesting information that should be made available to the public via a website.

Basically two areas which administrators should be held accountable is the performance of the sport (i.e. medals, ranking, etc.) and financial management (transparency in this respect is vital).

For instance, not winning a single medal at the last Asian Games was disastrous. As again mentioned in your article, a commission was appointed to find out the reasons but findings were not disclosed nor are we aware if recommendations from this report are being implemented.

Let me thank your paper once again for bringing the subject of sport into a public discussion forum and am looking forward to the further articles in this regard as well.

By Ela Kiri [mailto:[email protected]]