After nearly a decade of twists and turns since it was first allotted the Games in 2008-09, Goa as the host of the next edition of the National Games, is finally on firmer ground that it indeed will host the prestigious and arguably India’s biggest multi-discipline sports competition in exactly a year.
Will it?
‘Yes’ says the officialdom both in government and in the Goa Olympic Association. Let’s see, may be or may be not, say many others like journalists, athletes, sports administrators and enthusiasts.
Who’s right and who’s wrong will eventually be decided when November 2020 comes and goes, but on ground zero, in only four of the 37 disciplines that comprise the National Games the venues are ready for the conduct of competition - Football (Utorda football ground), Rugby (Benaulim football ground), Billiards and Snooker (Peddem indoor stadium).
And yes, two other disciplines - shooting and cycling - which initially were to be held in Kerala where the previous edition of the National Games was held but the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) stepped in to rule that the competition in these two disciplines will be in Delhi where infrastructure is the best.
Is Goa’s hosting bid
justified?
The IOA, the apex body controlling all competition in Olympic disciplines in the country, mooted the concept of the National Games to promote the development of sports and of the Olympic movement in India. It is responsible for host city selection and picked Goa to host this edition way back in 2008-09.
Why did Goa bid for the Games in the first place, just as it did to host the Lusofonia Games in 2013 is a million dollar question that never found answers and has never been debated in Goa’s sports, administration and political level.
But in the decade since then, the level of discourse between Goa - the Goa Olympic Association (GOA) and Government Sports officials combine - and the IOA has been anything but cordial and sporting owing to Goa’s unjustifiable procrastination and resultant unpreparedness to host the Games at multiple points in time.
Originally, when Goa was first selected as ‘host city’ it was to host the Games in 2015, after two more editions which were allotted to Jharkhand and Kerala respectively. But as luck would have it, delay in holding those two editions gave Goa an additional four years from the original 2015 schedule. Yet, we were not ready to host the competition this month and the government/officials got into a seemingly unsavoury engagement with the IOA to buy more time. In fact, it earned the wrath of the IOA, which imposed a Rs 10 crore fine for reneging on the agreement to hold the Games in November 4-17 this year.
Critics argue that the very bid to host the Games when it was put up wasn’t a well thought out move simply because Goa did not have the infrastructure and more importantly the ‘sports culture’ to deserve such an honour.
“Apart from football and a sprinkling of bright sparks in a number of individual sports disciplines, Goa and Goan athletes stand nowhere at the national level. Also, the development of the game in any of the 30-odd disciplines at the State level leaves much to be desired,” a senior football player-administrator now reclusive from the game, said.
If development of sports and the Olympic movement is the IOA’s motto in holding the ‘National Games’ then Goa as the host of this edition, now slotted for November 2020, will achieve neither, he said, and pointed to the example of the Lusofonia Games which we hosted, if only to save face and by pumping in a couple of hundred crores of rupees in infrastructure which is now being used more for exhibitions, concerts, political gatherings and so on, rather than sports.
Not without reason. The Shamaprasad Mukherjee Stadium is a classic example where the State basketball and volleyball teams have never trained at the venue before embarking on tours for national events. But concerts including the opening and closing ceremonies of the International Film Festival of India, political campaign meetings and commercial exhibitions and trade fairs are hosted there by the dozens every year.
State not ready even
after 10 years
Rome, they say, wasn’t built in a day. In Goa, the converse seems to be true, at least when it comes to its record of hosting events of the stature of the National Games. Takes one down memory lane to the race against time to complete the PJ Nehru stadium at Fatorda, the State’s first ever international standard sports arena, to host the Nehru Cup in the mid-1980s. Eventually it got done in the nick of time and it threw up a ‘hero’ in then Sports Minister Francisco Monte Cruz. Finally, all was well that ended well.
Closer in time at the turn of the millenium, came the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) which Goa was selected to be the ‘permanent venue’ for in India’s bid to raise the festival’s level to its better known peer - Cannes International Film Festival. Eventually it too got done in the nick of time, threw up yet another ‘hero’ in the late Manohar Parrikar and 15 years later all seems well, okay.
Goa did an encore with Parrikar once again thrown up as the ‘hero’ with the Lusofonia Games it hosted in January 2014.
Now with regard to the National Games, 10 long years have just been let to pass by and Goa is again staring at a challenge to be ready in exactly a year to host the games in November 2020. Why, is the brain dead question, more so when a Goan Phantom of the likes of Monte Cruz and Parrikar, no where in sight.
Is there a lack of will in creating the infrastructure? Why is it that Goa cannot complete the infrastructure despite so many delays. Is there enough money in the coffers to pay for the work? These and more are the questions that come up at this stage, brain dead as they may sound but imperative they get answered if Goa’s tryst with the National Games is not to turn more sour than it already has.
Officialdom confident
The competition in the National Games is restricted to States ranked among top eight in the national rankings. Under this criteria, Goa would not have made it to more than a handful of disciplines but as the host, it gets to enter teams in all disciplines even if it doesn’t qualify.
VM Prabhudesai, who’s been in and out of being the Goa government’s ‘Man Friday’ for all matters sports for over two decades and is now back at the helm as Executive Director of Sports Authority of Goa, sounds confident confronting all these questions.
On every aspect, be it equipment, medical cover, infrastructure and transport for the organisation of the games, stock is being taken regularly, Prabhudesai insists.
Eleven functional areas have been formed and given tasks for the National Games. The Goa police department has been entrusted security, accommodation is the Goa tourism department’s lookout, Directorate of Sports will look after everything within the sports arenas, according to Prabhudesai.
Goa’s Sports Secretary, Mukesh Kumar, IAS, who is also the chairman of the apex organisational committee - Games Technical Conduct Committee - sounds equally confident.
Two new sports stadia - one in Sawalwada, Pernem and the other at Campal to replace the former ‘Indoor Stadium’ are nearing completion, they claim.
“Our thrust is that these stadiums should be completed. Work is progressing on a war footing. The rains are over and agencies executing the work are confident they will complete the venues before schedule,” Kumar said.
While the story on ground zero is frightening, on paper though the officialdom claims each and every venue is in 15-100% completion stage.
The trouble however is the Indoor Stadium at Campal where badminton and Table Tennis are slated to be conducted, the tennis facility at Fatorda, the Swimming pool in Campal for the aquatics competition, the squash facility at Chicalim and the open ground in Campal which will be used for baseball.
A document ‘Summary of New Construction’ of the Sports Ministry claims for instance that the Multi-purpose Hall, Fatorda where Wushu and Sepak Takraw disciplines will be conducted is 100% complete. Similarly, Navelim Sports Complex where Handball, Netball and Kho-Kho will be held is also cent per-cent finished while the indoor stadium at Ponda which will host Judo, Taekwondo and Wrestling is complete up to 95 per-cent.
The hockey facility at Peddem, Mapusa and the indoor stadium at Sawalwada, Pernem where Kabaddi and Weightlifting will be conducted are both completed to the extent of 90%.
With the recent rains owing to cyclonic formations, work hasn’t really taken off on a ‘war-footing’ and with a few months required in the end for individual sports federations to fit equipment and make their respective arena’s technical fit to hold international competition, the next few months will be crucial for completing the infrastructure.
Apart from these, the authorities also have their task cut out in preparing five more venues through overlays such as the Colvale river for canoeing, kayaking and rowing, the Miramar beach for Beach Volleyball and Beach Handball, Dona Paula coast for Yachting, the Caranzalem-Miramar stretch for Triathlon and the Chicalim“Cortalim road stretch for Cycling (Road).
Competition: Where Goan athletes stand
Hosting is only one aspect of the National Games. Where Goa faces a bigger challenge is to compete and make it to the podium, if at all in the 35-plus disciplines a dozen of which have not even been heard of here.
While we leave Goa’s preparedness in competition for scrutiny in the next one year leading to the games, ignoring this aspect would be inappropriate and the picture isn’t rosy when attempting to tackle questions like ‘what are our team preparations? Why make a fool of ourselves? Will it not be sensible to field teams only in disciplines where we can compete decently?
Sports Editor of a leading newspaper had this to say: “In volleyball, we won’t get even eight points against the top eight teams unless opponents concede negative points. Same will be the case in basketball and many other disciplines.”
Nonetheless, others argue that participation is in itself a feather in the cap. At least Goa, for the record, will end up at the 9th position which the State cannot dream off in a normal full field of 28 States at the national level in most of the disciplines.
