Is a National Sports Corporation taking shape?

Unlike in many life pursuits, it is said that sports is the great leveller. Sport is where you walk the talk or more precisely, run, sprint, jump, throw, shoot, bat, bowl, field, kick, pass and speed the talk.

It is also where superfluous claims and extreme flatulence lose its appeal and action is the key criteria; where performance is the all encompassing, more often than not in the glare of fans and fanatics, a whole slew of hungry media and an unforgiving public watching and waiting to pass judgment.

This is where boardroom antics and stock market manipulations under the guise of high octane business give way to the bare bones of merit; where the crooks are separated from the champions or if modesty is a must, from sportsmen and sportswomen who make the ultimate sacrifice and endeavour.

No small wonder that it has been overly exclaimed, that when judgment day comes, one has to account not on how you won or lost, but on how you played the game! No room to hide here, no friend to turn to, no one to blame or no one to curry favour, but right at the epicentre of all that human kind strives to achieve, the platitudes of honour or the ignominy of disgrace.

Virtue of the past

Regrettably, this sublime interpretation of the nobility of sports appears to be a virtue of the past. This is perhaps the reason why sports today is subject to deceit and decadence. Match fixing, drug enhancement, nepotism and favouritism fuelled by the lust of lucre have all but overtaken sports and dragged it into a quagmire of unbridled competition. The winner must take all and the vanquished must cheat in order to succeed.

Honour is a fine thing if it is burnished with greenbacks. Power is the broker who orchestrates the encounters and defines the bottom lines that govern the sport and maintains oligarchs who have the temerity to suggest that they will not leave until a successor of their ilk is found. Sounds familiar; well, we have many despots roaming the universe and making a spectacle of themselves at the expense of the sport and the well being of its subjects.

Recently, Jerome Champagne, the erudite and widely-respected Frenchman who was very much in the FIFA vanguard, circulated a 20,000 word report dissecting the evolution of FIFA and its relevance today. The underlying theme of his message was to call to an end the perception that FIFA was run by self-serving men who care very little about the game itself.

Coincidently, perhaps, FIFA boss Blatter has already sheepishly announced that Platini will fill his shoes effectively when the next election comes in 2015! How sweet! Parallels abound the world over and Sri Lanka for example, matches the FIFA edict to the letter. How come, otherwise, that Sri Lanka possesses a seat on the FIFA Ex-Co when it can hardly run its affairs in Colombo!?

The IOC has not been without blame and in like manner, the NOC has not done better either, safeguarding the passage to coveted seats that guarantee universal perks without commensurate results.

As if enough was enough, the Minister of Sports has recently started to crack the whip and exposed some of the ills that seem to undermine Sri Lanka sports. Many would have felt gratified that the Minister has gone one better than some of his predecessors who played ball with the power brokers for their own end.

In being blatantly hostile, he has sent a very strong signal to all National Sports Associations (NSAs). But what is worrying many is the agenda that may underline these stentorian statements.

National Sports Policy

While the promulgation of a National Sports Policy is praiseworthy in the main because it straddles a very ambitious mission, the amendments to the Sports Act of 1973 are ominous, to say the least. One must recognise that sports is not all about winning one more 50 over cricket game. It has much to do with the health and discipline of a nation as it must encourage a competitive spirit in its people.

A cursory examination of what is in store thankfully addresses these attributes and promotes a holistic development through its many institutions as well as through new initiatives such as sports degrees and a modern sports development centre. Equally enterprising is the effort to link all sports activities conducted by NSAs to a web portal, something this column has long advocated.

These are salutary steps in the right direction and they must be persevered with vigour because big claims without adequate effort will only result in lukewarm results. The fact that only a few NSA have even a sports calendar let alone a corresponding budget emphasises the predicament!

Attempting to build state-of-the-art sports complexes in 342 Divisional Secretariats sounds like a pipedream, much as they will overwhelm even an aspiration like the Wonder of Asia! Yet, let’s venture and take the step forward; part of the journey is in the dream, it is said!

Politicisation of sport

The dreaded part comes from the politicisation of the sport and the demeaning overlap over the NSAs that the Ministry of Sports (MOS) seems to perpetuate.

Take its recent utterances concerning cricket. After much apathy the MOS organised and made possible a duly elected Cricket Board, even if some were to complain of State manipulation. So what was the necessity to slam (even if the semantic was disputed) its President when the worthy had exorcised the demons and was getting ready to do a job of work?

Now the Sword of Damocles is hanging over the head of the President with short shift given to expeditiously bring the SLC out of a crisis that was foisted on it. And if reports are anything to go by, making a statement that the financial woes of SLC was only a temporary setback smacks of a most banal attitude to a serious breach of professional conduct.

If it was as simple as that, every NSA can go on a binge, mortgage its assets and invest in development on the understanding that funds will accrue or the State will redeem it. Lacks propriety my friend, any decent CA will tell you. So why the high-handed charade and for whose sake?

Football fiasco

On the contrary, the penalty kick that the Football Federation got was perhaps too little too late! Many Sports Ministers have left the FFSL severely alone because of a misplaced aura that its affairs were well managed; thus any intervention would have been seen as interference.

Football insiders will tell you that nothing is further from the truth and that the Minister has shown a tremendous patience or a political sanitation in allowing the game to go the full distance without a red or even a rudimentary yellow card.

Here is an institution that is an enigma even to its own affiliates. It is run clinically quiet without as much as a whimper from within. The media made subtle references to a Board of Management which unconstitutionally supersedes the Ex-Co & Council of the FFSL.

Knowledgeable enthusiasts will tell you that key appointees of the FFSL have hardly have a say in its affairs, while a CEO runs the show on the dictates of a big chief and a President who only frets over an ineffective National Team.

As was stated above, all these shenanigans are possible until a team arrives on the pitch and here the National Football Team has exposed the administration by its repeated abysmal performances; you get the team you deserve, is all that can be said!

Other sports have had fared no better and Rugby as many will tell you has finally anointed its long-awaited President. That money is making a mockery of the sport with player transfers and other simulations distracting what is a well supported organisation at every level. But let’s leave that subject for another day, as must we defer a commentary on athletics that hardly attracts even a whimper in sports circles nowadays.

Some of the steps taken by MOS are positive and will bring into the spotlight shortcomings that must be laid bare and addressed promptly. However, the question that begs credence is what the primary role of the MOS should be.

Are the determinants of the Sports Law that is now awaiting Cabinet sanction a method to bring the NSAs under an iron grip or will they provide the critical governance framework under which sports can flourish?

A veritable National Sports Corporation hopefully is not what is envisaged. What one must muster are independent representative bodies drawn from people who have played each sport at the highest levels but overseen by an appropriate supervisory framework applied in a timely and apolitical manner by the MOS. That, God willing, is what a sports loving public will pray for as we dive into the vagaries of another year!