Abhinav Bindra-led NRAI review committee has come out with a damning 36-page report reviewing the performance.
The committee was formed after none of the 12 Olympic-qualified Indian shooters managed to get a medal in Rio with Bindra’s fourth-place finish in 10m Air Rifle event being the best show.
The committee concluded that the consistent trickle of shooting medals since the 2004 Athens Games ended up making everyone involved in the sport complacent.
Observations of Committee:
Everyone took it for granted that there would be progress automatically, and forgot to ensure a systematic healthy process.
To sum up the deliberations of the committee it can be said with no reservations that Indian Shooting ‘over achieved’ at the Rio Olympic Games. The formula for success was wrong and Indian Shooting had ridden its luck over the last few years, no doubt helped by some extremely talented shooters.
The committee was unanimous in its view that Indian shooting needs to change, change its attitude, its policies and practices, so that the booming talent gets a fair chance to flourish in a healthy atmosphere, and win all the medals that it can in the World Championships and the Olympics.
The ‘chalta hai’ attitude that shadows Indian sport has to be stopped. The NRAI has to shed excess flab and needs to become a lean and mean fighting machine to ensure the implementation of a system that will churn out Champions. At present the system is adhoc. There is no systemic framework in place.
Key recommendations made to NRAI:
The NRAI must work towards becoming a more shooter friendly organization. The NRAI needs to start taking ownership of its shooters and that in itself will lead to a lot of problems getting solved. The welfare of the shooter must lie at the heart of every activity and decision of the NRAI. The shooters go through much trouble in getting even minor matters solved. The NRAI must learn to treat every shooter at every level, be it youth, junior or senior or even a beginner with respect. It has to be in the DNA of the NRAI.
The NRAI should have a competent person as a point of contact who is capable of dealing with the stakeholders ensuring that everyone is on the same page, leading to effective monitoring.
The NRAI needs to hire competent coaches. It needs to start grooming former shooters with a long term vision. The sanctity of the national camp must be restored. The camp has to be a skill development one and cannot be confused with pre-departure camps. The NRAI will have to start taking ownership of the camps and its athletes, everything cannot be outsourced to SAI.
The NRAI should work with non-benign private sponsorship organizations and ensure there is no overlap of resources. The goal [of both parties] is the same.
NRAI should have a robust working relationship with the Services. The NRAI should also use the world class facilities of the AMU in Mhow and consider the possibility of holding skill development camps there away from any distractions. The Services have over the years provided many shooters to the Indian team and this relationship has to be tapped and enhanced.
The NRAI has not woken up to the demands of sport science and it is high time it does. There is a pressing requirement for hiring a professional and qualified physio for every ten shooters in a camp, be it senior or junior. The less said about the physios deputed by SAI the better.
Support staff play a significant role in the development of athletes, and the NRAI should not depend entirely on SAI and take a leaf out of Hockey India which has streamlined operations and put quality personnel at all levels.
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