Prioritization of sports organisations
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Md. Mahfuzur Rahman Siddique
NO sooner had I finished the most humble article captioned "The ever growing sports organisations", which was published in this paper, than it came to my knowledge that another baby had since been born in our sports family. The name of this new comer is the Bangladesh Fencing Association. I regret the inadvertent exclusion of this discipline of recent origin from the list given in the said article.
Against the backdrop of the increasing member of sports organisations in Bangladesh, the inactivity of some of these organisations has recently prompted one of the top sports administrators to express concern. During the recent weeks the person at the helm of the Olympic Movement in Bangladesh, the President of the Bangladesh Olympic Association and Chairman of the National Sports Council, has pronounced concern more than once on the apparent impasse of some of our sports organisations, which merits discussion.
In the age of growing professionalism in games, numerical strength of sports organisations can never be the criterion of development in sports. Quality and only quality of performance, whatever might be the quantity, is the only yardstick to measure the upliftment in sports. If the recently expressed concern about the objective condition of the sports activities in Bangladesh by the Chief of our National Olympic Committee and the Chairperson of National Sports Council, General Moeen U Ahmed, ndc, psc, is deeply examined it will transpire that his concern connotes expectation about quality not quantity in this respect. His repeated pronouncements on this issue surely signify the promotion of each and every sports discipline in terms of quality i.e. competitive zeal and capability. These have not certainly been made to discourage the growth of sports organisations.
Now, the question naturally arises what might be the standard of measuring the success and development of games and sports in our country of 144 million people. Should the authorities formulating the national sports policy and those governing, controlling and coordinating the sports activities opt for a proactive approach in this regard or pursue a policy to the contrary, that is to restrict the growth of sports organisations with least potentiality and prospect. To respect "the right to reasonable rest, recreation and leisure" as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land, we would not opt for restriction on the growth. The rational and reasonable alternative in this respect can be the Prioritisation of some sports disciplines. Games and sports with proven potentiality and competitiveness should get priority in terms of government financial assistance and incidental logistic support over the others. This is again a difficult issue to deal with. Here comes the inevitable question of the determinant. What would be the possible determining factor for giving priority to one federation over the others? The raisond'etre of the proposed Prioritisation can be based on certain criteria to be fulfilled by the federations/associations. This may include inter alia;
a. Mere staging some events such as National Championship will not ipso facto entitle any newly formed sports organisation to be affiliated either with the NOC or the NSC. Both the bodies may accord provisional recognition to such organisation. The newly launched o
NO sooner had I finished the most humble article captioned "The ever growing sports organisations", which was published in this paper, than it came to my knowledge that another baby had since been born in our sports family. The name of this new comer is the Bangladesh Fencing Association. I regret the inadvertent exclusion of this discipline of recent origin from the list given in the said article.
Against the backdrop of the increasing member of sports organisations in Bangladesh, the inactivity of some of these organisations has recently prompted one of the top sports administrators to express concern. During the recent weeks the person at the helm of the Olympic Movement in Bangladesh, the President of the Bangladesh Olympic Association and Chairman of the National Sports Council, has pronounced concern more than once on the apparent impasse of some of our sports organisations, which merits discussion.
In the age of growing professionalism in games, numerical strength of sports organisations can never be the criterion of development in sports. Quality and only quality of performance, whatever might be the quantity, is the only yardstick to measure the upliftment in sports. If the recently expressed concern about the objective condition of the sports activities in Bangladesh by the Chief of our National Olympic Committee and the Chairperson of National Sports Council, General Moeen U Ahmed, ndc, psc, is deeply examined it will transpire that his concern connotes expectation about quality not quantity in this respect. His repeated pronouncements on this issue surely signify the promotion of each and every sports discipline in terms of quality i.e. competitive zeal and capability. These have not certainly been made to discourage the growth of sports organisations.
Now, the question naturally arises what might be the standard of measuring the success and development of games and sports in our country of 144 million people. Should the authorities formulating the national sports policy and those governing, controlling and coordinating the sports activities opt for a proactive approach in this regard or pursue a policy to the contrary, that is to restrict the growth of sports organisations with least potentiality and prospect. To respect "the right to reasonable rest, recreation and leisure" as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land, we would not opt for restriction on the growth. The rational and reasonable alternative in this respect can be the Prioritisation of some sports disciplines. Games and sports with proven potentiality and competitiveness should get priority in terms of government financial assistance and incidental logistic support over the others. This is again a difficult issue to deal with. Here comes the inevitable question of the determinant. What would be the possible determining factor for giving priority to one federation over the others? The raisond'etre of the proposed Prioritisation can be based on certain criteria to be fulfilled by the federations/associations. This may include inter alia;
a. Mere staging some events such as National Championship will not ipso facto entitle any newly formed sports organisation to be affiliated either with the NOC or the NSC. Both the bodies may accord provisional recognition to such organisation. The newly launched o