SPORTS AUTHORITY OF GOA IS MORE INTERESTED IN GENERATING REVENUE THAT BOOSTING SPORTSMEN by Nisser Dias

At the recently concluded assembly session Congress legislators in the absence of the BJP MLAs (boycotted - demanding dropping of Education minister Babush Monserrate from cabinet on charges of currency smuggling) made a fervent plea to either develop or construct play grounds to give a boost to sports in the state.

It is indeed an excellent thought even though the elected representatives received a rare spark of ingenuity after the victory of Indian cricket team at the World Cup after 28 long years and that too on homeland. Of course every single Indian is proud of the achievement and our unsporting legislators did their bit by moving a congratulatory motion in the assembly.

However their plea to develop more playgrounds in the state is not honorary because their main intention is not development of sports or sportsmen but the commissions and the cuts they receive for undertaking such projects. There cannot be a more classic example then the Common Wealth Games where crores of rupees were siphoned off by various members of the organising committee and just this week, its chairman Suresh Kalmadi was arrested by the CBI for his involvement in the scam.

And surely Goa legislators especially the lot that is governing the state are no saints. They take up projects only when they are assured of their commissions. Our elected representatives have also struck a cord with equally greedy personnel staffed in the sports authorities like the SAG, GCA, Youth Affairs and various other units involved in sports.

First and foremost let me discuss village playgrounds which have been taken over by the Sports Authority of Goa. It started during the first tenure of Mickky Pacheco as sports ministers, however the concept of take-over could have been mooted before Pacheco even became an MLA. But he went along with the tide maybe due to inexperience. The idea of handing-over village playgrounds to SAG was to develop them and equip them with proper facilities for the local youth to use. However the moment SAG took possession of few grounds they refused to let youth from the locality to even play on it in the evening. That was not the end of it, SAG went a step ahead and fenced the ground, erected a gate and maintained a security guard to deter youth from using it. Can sports be developed by denying youth to use the village grounds?

Refusing local youth from playing or using the ground did not go well with the villagers who resorted to hooliganism to mark their protest. SAG authorities failed to realize that these grounds were developed over the decades because of village folks used these spaces to dry fish, chillies and other provisions in the morning sun and in the evening the youth would use it to play. Restraining youth from using the grounds to play which they had been doing so for decades raised heckles and protests from villagers. To rub salt into the would, SAG then decided to levy a fee of Rs 500 a day for youth to use the grounds and also charge village clubs organizing annual inter-ward and inter-village tournaments. As it is village clubs used to have a hard time to bring in sponsors to organize tournaments and now they had the burden to pay SAG. I am of the opinion that the first nail in coffin in discouraging youth from playing football in villages was hammered in by the SAG for their greed of generating revenue.

As of today a ground in Benaulim which was taken over by SAG has been leased out to Churchill Brothers for thirty three years for mere Rs.20,000 a year. If one does simple arithmetics the villagers or local youth using the ground at a fee of Rs. 500 would end up paying Rs. 15,000 a month, whereas a professional club is made to pay just Rs. 20,000 for a year. Under such circumstances how can the sports minister and his ministry and other sports bodies under him develop and groom young talent.

While on the topic of Churchill Brothers club, Joaquim Alemao has been the president of the Varca sports club for times in memorial. The village boasts of a good football ground which was earlier used by the local youth to play. Under Joaquim presidency the ground was enclosed with a boundary wall with seating arrangements. However local youth are denied permission to use the ground like earlier times on daily basis but professional players are allowed to practice. Even organizers of ward tournaments of the village itself are charged a fee to use the grounds. If this is the attitude of ministers and Sports Authority of Goa how can we think of picking up young talents. We should realize that talents are not picked up in camps or coaching classes, young talents are picked up from village football grounds.

Then Sports and Youth Affairs wanted to acquire cultivable land in Nuvem admeasuring almost 30,000 sq meters to build a stadium for the Government primary school. Handful of students studying in the primary government school were below the age of 7 years. Church ground situated just opposite the school was available to these toddlers, but the director of Sports and Youth Affairs Dr. Susanna D’souza was determined to acquire the land and thus in bid to convince the farmers is alleged to have told the villagers that she is going to build a, ‘sexy’ stadium there and villagers should not object to it. This is classic case of those in-charge of sports are not interested in applying their mind to improvement of sports but are more interested in building structures and generating revenue.

I am of the opinion that government has to provide infrastructure for every sports being played in Goa and all the facilities should be made available to young budding children. At the same time the government should not take over local play grounds and deny the villagers from using it just because SAG or government has constructed a boundary wall. Yet another example of mis-use or rather abuse of sports equipments. For four long years sports equipment like cricket , football, volley ball kits are sparingly provided to village clubs. However in the election year all the MLAs take tons of sports equipment and distribute it like confetti to any tom, dick and harry just to attract votes and the sports bodies like SAG and Sports and Youth Affairs are party to this practice.

In conclusion to develop sports in Goa we need not flatten hills or destroy forests and fields to set up infrastructure where local youth will not be permitted to use. We need to improvise village grounds, provide facilities and incentives and more importantly urge and encourage the youth to use it on daily basis without restrictions.