Asiad: India pump in Rs 700 cr for its athletes - and results need to show

It will be once again a jumbo 501-member Indian contingent vying to better their record 107-medal haul at Hangzhou when the Asian Games gets underway this week at Aichi-Nagoya in Japan. Nothing wrong with it as it’s been virtually at par with the previous edition (503), which provided a 20 per cent medal yield as against the number of athletes - but it’s the government budget for this cycle as well as the number of support staff which may again raise eyebrows.

The record Hangzhou haul showed 28 gold, 28 silver and 40 medals – raising hopes of a first-ever ‘double figure’ of medals at Paris 2024 but it turned out to be a case of flattering to deceive as India fell one short of their best-ever Olympics tally of seven medals at Tokyo. Meanwhile, the whopping number of 265 members of the support staff which accounts for almost 52 per cent of the athletes’ strength looks stupendous – though the officials have an explanation ready on the table.

 What is astounding is the government budget for the three-year cycle for Asian Games, where it pumped into the tune of 702.86 crores through the Annual Competition and Training Calender (ACTC), alongside an additional Rs 97.84 cr from TOPS to prepare athletes for Aichi Nagoya. A cumulative figure of Rs 800 crore is hence the highest recorded specific build-up expenditure by India for the continental Games – and there are no prizes for guessing that there could be a backlash in case of the contingent fail to better or at least match up the previous show.

The financial breakdown of the Rs 700-plus crore outlay under the ACTC are: International competition exposure: Rs 251.4 crore; Domestic training: 118.3 crore; Other expenses: 117.9 crore; Equipment support: 89.2 crore; Foreign experts: 86.3 crore; Overseas training: 39.8 cr. The other expenses head accounting for Rs 117.9 crore may raise questions, but it is learnt to be covering remuneration of Indian athletes, hosting national and international competitions in India and coaches’ development.

 Speaking during a media interaction, N.S. Johal, CEO of the Union Sports Ministry’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) said: ‘’Since January this year, we have had nine coordination meetings of the Target Asian Games Group and the whole effort has been to provide athletes with the best possible environment despite the administrative challenges posed by issues in various federations.

 ‘’The biggest takeaway has been that despite everything that goes on, the focus has not wavered from the athletes. We have 65 athletes in the contingent (out of a tally of 310 debutants) who have come through Khelo India, which is our baseline sports system,’’ he added.

 The number of support staff, meanwhile, had been a contentious issue even ahead of Hangzhou with P.T. Usha, then in his early days as the President of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) jumping in with a clarification. This time, the TOPS CEO justified the number by saying that sports science specialists such as physios and mental health experts along with doctors had to be well represented in the contingent. ‘’Every team has women’s support staff. One third of the authorised support staff is from sports sciences. These are the little things we have worked on to ensure balance in the contingents,’’ he said.

‘’It took us a while to come out with the contingent list because some federations had not named enough women support staff,’’ Johal added. The 265-strong contingent of support staff features 56 women which is roughly 22 per cent of the total strength.

 The onus is now the likes of established names like a Satwik-Chirag, P.V.Sindhu, Manu Bhaker to newcomers like Rohit Yadav – who is stepping into the big shoes of Neeraj Chopra who pulled out due to injury – to prove that the money has been well spent on the athletes!