Sports AGMs aka Annual General Meanderings!
It is that time of the year when National Sports Associations traditionally resort to their annual merry-go-round. A time to take stock and launch their team for the next term; a time also for back scratching or stabbing, whichever is convenient or professionally justifiable! The bandwagon is the important vehicle and keeping it intact and on the road is the enviable occupation of those in office, never mind the journey so far.
It is a time that makes you realise that with friends like this you don’t need enemies. Just when you were sitting pretty, the carpet has been pulled under your feet and the muffin you had saved for supper, suddenly full of ants!
Yes, that is the view from the grandstand, at least whatever is visible and not shrouded in escapism as we are made to believe. The Minister of Sports (MOS) has made his point and rudely awakened a few prima donnas as if to say enough is enough. He may not have been as consistent as Mahela is nowadays, but he certainly has made his case loud and clear. For starters, he has taken the AASL chief off the blocks saying that a five year term is not on the cards. The Athletic Chief has been backed by powerful people in the past but this time around there has been nothing of worth to show and the MOS has had no other option but to put the lid on any more extensions. It is reported that legal action was threatened but saner counsel has prevailed and for all purposes an interim committee is in place until a new AASL Ex-co is eventually elected and takes office.
Similar action has been meted out to the ladies with the Netball Association also placed under an interim committee; what the men can do badly, we can do worse seems to be the message. The Lawn Tennis Association barely survived the MOS wrath with a new President coming into play. We all know about the Cricket stakes and the fun and games that made its much publicised recent elections. The Rugby Union too finally settled for its favourite son and the onus now was on how to raise money to pay rising debts. Long time sponsor Caltex is learning the hard way that weight matters in the scrum and the Union was not willing to be led anymore than was necessary over these past years! No doubt there are a few more associations who have lost their way having lost the reason why they came to be there in the first place. Professional association types are smart at picking up myriad sports however obscure they may be, so that they construct a lopsided structure, obtain a dubious international affiliation and seek recognition from the MOS with a show of sanitised patriotism. With those bare credentials an international stratagem is subtlety created and foreign travel becomes the perennial rhythm. Anything to keep the Sri Lanka flag flying high!
Where the inconsistency in the MOS creeps in is when those who should be shown the door are given another term because of political solidarity or perhaps orders from the top. Football is a classic case in point. The MOS is on public record both in parliament and the media expressing loudly that he is disappointed with the continuing FFSL performance and is only biding his time. He then nonchalantly extends the term of the Football President by another year, ostensibly to give him another chance. If only the MOS does his basic homework, it is common knowledge that whoever becomes President in FFSL does not matter because this Federation is run by the Chairman of a so called Management Committee. A peek into the FFSL CEO’s passport will show that the incumbent is more out of the country while the gravy train is careening along circuitous rails. So another term for such a calamitous team is only an exercise in futility; you might well say, prolonging the agony!
It is therefore apparent that something is very wrong with the sports in our land. One should not wait for an AGM to make all these grand master strokes and painful decisions. All National Sports Associations (NSA) if they are monitored carefully will show up soon after the AGM’s are held and a team takes office. What is the game plan and what resources are available; what are the periodic results?
These KRA’s will tell you about the state of play and thus the eventual outcome need not hold undue surprises. The MOS must be fully in the picture of what the annual objectives of each NSA are and assess these realisations in a timely manner. To shut the gates once the colt has bolted is hardly a way to run national sports.
What role does the National Olympic Committee or the National Sports Council (NSC) play in this parlous state of our sports firmament? Would it be too much to ask that after a specific term of office, normally two years, a NSA must be accountable for its performance? A national sports supervisory body constituted by a Board that can encompass the MOS, the NOC and the NSC must take stock of each NSA and make a public record of their performance over the prescribed period. It is based on this evaluation that further responsibility can be given and then validated at AGM’s of each of the NSA.
If it’s a thumbs down, the NSA should be placed on status quo and a probationary period imposed during which time corrective action is taken by appointed sports authorities. Otherwise for all purposes, what we will have is Annual General Meanderings that takes the sport nowhere in particular except for those hanging on to its entrails forever!
