NRAI terminates contracts of 24 coaches, hiring for new coaches to start soon

12/09/2021

136

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has decided to terminate the contracts of all the existing coaches, as per a report in the Times of India. As many as 24 coaches, senior and junior, were informed about the decision through email, following the review by the federation.

In addition to that, the NRAI has also decided to not renew the contracts of the foreign coaches Smirnov Pavel (pistol) and Oleg Mikhailov (rifle).

“Yes, we have terminated contracts of all coaches and the decision has been taken after a thorough review of their performance during the past few years,” NRAI’s new secretary-general Kanwar Sultan Singh told TOI. Singh went on to add the NRAi will soon start the process of hiring new coaches.

“We have to consider a lot of factors while hiring the coaches. It is no longer only about technical skills. It is much more than that and we have felt the need for having coaches who can pass on things other than skills. Things like mental training, confidence building and overall conduct will be desired from the coaches,” he said.

The federation now has two months to hire the new coaches before the 2022 season begins. Singh said that the terminated coaches can re-apply if they fit the bill. “We will be setting new parameters to hire the coaches and if they fit the bill, they can re-apply. The selection would be subject to them clearing the eligibility criteria. Also, the appointments will be done only after consultation with the Sports Authority of India (SAI),” he added.

Terminated coaches

Rifle: Deepali Deshpande, Suma Shirur, Manoj Kumar, Deepak Kumar Dubey, Dalip Chandel, Satguru Dass

Pistol: Ronak Pandit, Samaresh Jung, Jaspal Rana, Ved Prakash Pilania, Priti Sharma, Shakun Bhugra, Sonia Rai, Rajiv Sharma, Sumeet Sanghavi

Shotgun: Mansher Singh, Vikram Chopra, Amarjang Sidhu, Vishavdev Singh, Padmanabhan, Anwer Sultan, Veerpal Kaur, Krishna Kumar, Neel