Three years is a long time. And to be away from it all for this period may not be the best way to maintain continuity as far as sports administration is concerned.
The contentious mandatory cooling-off period after completing six years in office by top functionaries of national sports federations may not be the right fit. It works for the bureaucracy to move on ever so often but sports is a completely different kettle of fish.
The idea behind the move is praise-worthy indeed as it seeks to break the stranglehold certain individuals held over NSFs, making it well nigh impossible to function without their consent. Over the years there is hardly any dearth of instances of such near-feudal control of NSFs that the move on the face of it does appear justified.
However, as has been pointed out by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, terms of office-bearers at the state associations should not bar them from stepping up to the national federation and both periods be treated as separate. Though BCCI awaits the Supreme Court's approval of it proposal as cleared by its annual general meeting of December 2019, there seems a strong argument in its favour.
State associations are indeed the stepping stones for office-bearers in the national federations. So barring them for any period during the transition may not be the best idea since there is every chance of losing touch at various levels from sports-persons to sports ministry.
A bar on how long a person can remain in a particular post in welcome indeed. Yet again BCCI provided the lead with a five-year cap since inception in December 1928 that slowly but surely paved the way for rotation of power and prevented attempts at even regional, let alone individual, domination.
One-size-fits-all does not really work, more so in the field of sports where mere technical management is far less than managing humans who are endowed with special talents.
Even though NSFs at the moment are on a "pause" mode, thanks to the directions of the Delhi High Court on the annual recognition granted to them by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, it may also be the right window of opportunity to revisit the National Sports Code of 2011.
The sports code is, without doubt, a laudable initiative to rid NSFs of individual domination but mindless application of rules can do more harm than good.
The contentious mandatory cooling-off period after completing six years in office by top functionaries of national sports federations may not be the right fit. It works for the bureaucracy to move on ever so often but sports is a completely different kettle of fish.
The idea behind the move is praise-worthy indeed as it seeks to break the stranglehold certain individuals held over NSFs, making it well nigh impossible to function without their consent. Over the years there is hardly any dearth of instances of such near-feudal control of NSFs that the move on the face of it does appear justified.
However, as has been pointed out by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, terms of office-bearers at the state associations should not bar them from stepping up to the national federation and both periods be treated as separate. Though BCCI awaits the Supreme Court's approval of it proposal as cleared by its annual general meeting of December 2019, there seems a strong argument in its favour.
State associations are indeed the stepping stones for office-bearers in the national federations. So barring them for any period during the transition may not be the best idea since there is every chance of losing touch at various levels from sports-persons to sports ministry.
A bar on how long a person can remain in a particular post in welcome indeed. Yet again BCCI provided the lead with a five-year cap since inception in December 1928 that slowly but surely paved the way for rotation of power and prevented attempts at even regional, let alone individual, domination.
One-size-fits-all does not really work, more so in the field of sports where mere technical management is far less than managing humans who are endowed with special talents.
Even though NSFs at the moment are on a "pause" mode, thanks to the directions of the Delhi High Court on the annual recognition granted to them by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, it may also be the right window of opportunity to revisit the National Sports Code of 2011.
The sports code is, without doubt, a laudable initiative to rid NSFs of individual domination but mindless application of rules can do more harm than good.
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