Budding athletes lack training as there are no sports coaches in the taluk.
Hussain, a high school student, used to go for handball training every morning before school to the only stadium, the CBS stadium in Gangavathi. Hussain is a handball enthusiast. He wanted to take part in school games. But his team backed out of last year’s school games. He said that the team was scared that they were not prepared well enough. “Our team feared that teams from other schools might have been trained by private coaches. On the other hand, we are self-trained,” Hussain said. After that Hussain also lost all his motivation to play and he stopped going to the stadium for practice.
In Gangavathi taluk of Karnataka, no sports coaches are appointed in the stadium, schools and colleges. Students and teachers both are upset about the situation. Manjunath a Physical Education (PE) teacher, at Government High School, Gangavathi said that they do not even have a playground in the school. “Lack of sports facilities, especially coaches destroys sports talent in the taluk even before it blooms. Meanwhile, we as teachers can only feel sorry for our students who can do very well in sports if provided the opportunity. There is nothing we can do,” he said.
In 2022, the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES) issued an order that they were to hire 176 coaches at the taluk level across the state. But the municipal council of Gangavathi informed that till now there has not been an allotment of coaches at the taluk level.
Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Tribal Welfare, B. Nagendra in last year said that the State Government is considering introducing a “One District, One Sport” scheme to encourage sportspersons in Karnataka. There has been no order given to the municipality yet to promote sports at district level.
A budget of Rs. 504 crore was passed under the KreedaAnkanas yojana to support rural sports, but the municipality reported thatno upgraded budget was provided to the Gangavathi taluk.
Officials from the Municipal Corporation of Gangavathi said that very fewfunds are provided to them. “, We use one per cent of thefunds provided for sports, which generally goes into the maintenance of the stadium and providing scholarships to people who are good in sports. We do not have any orders to appoint sports coaches. We never had a government sports coach in our taluk.”
Anand, the education coordinator at the Block Education Office (BO), said that they hardly get funds to maintain the school’s infrastructure and toilets. There are no separate funds for sports. “But we have PT teachers who teach students about physical education and sports,” he said.
Manjunath said that it is not helpful in any way for students to learn theory about sports and not get a chance or place to play them. “There is only one stadium in the whole taluk- CBS stadium. That stadium is also not maintained at all. There is no pitch or nets available. The only scenery you can see there is not someone playing, but cows grazing and boys relaxing in the corners. The office is always closed. There is no coach even there,” he said.
Bhanuprasad, a coach at a private sports academy, Gangavathi said, “Sports schemes are not properly implemented in major cities like Bangalore how can we expect them to run properly at taluk level? There are a few private sports clubs here in the taluk. But only economically advantaged people can send their children there. A government coach will train you for free but in private institutions we take basic fees.”
Former athlete and coach Aiyaapa said,“ The government announces big schemes for development of sports at the taluk level, but they hardly get implemented. In India, for a long time, no one cared about any sports apart from cricket. But now things are changing. It will take time to bring the sports culture to the taluk level. For that, we require continuous efforts from the government. Sports can bring a lot to a country, nationally and internationally. We are losing on a lot of talent just by neglecting sports.”
