All stakeholders should work together for betterment of sports, says Ranjyavardhan Singh Rathore

Indian sports have seen a watershed moment after Rathore took charge of the sports ministry and he started working on his vision and successfully staged the Khelo India Games. And now with the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games being less than a month away, the sports ministry has asked all the stakeholders of different sports to come together so that Indian sports can be benefited as a whole.

"We are in process of changing the way of functioning on the go. We are taking policy decisions in minutes. Earlier project officers or undersecretaries, without having knowledge of sports, used to deal with sports bodies but we are changing that. Decisions will be taken by those who understand sports. We even want to outsource our academies," said the 48-year-old.

"We have successfully organized Khelo India games in a short span. It's not like that that we can't run the sports in the country but we don't want to do that. We have our hands full. Whoever runs the sport be it professionals, NSFs or private partners, the approach should be professional," said the 2004 Olympic silver medalist.

"As far as politics in sports federations is concerned, it should be away but finally sport is one of the soft power projections in the country and players are representative of a country.

"It is good for a sporting fraternity that one amongst them has got the opportunity. Together we will show that a player can provide smooth administration as well. This opportunity should be given to them in NSFs also. The right combination is needed," he added.

For having sports to prosper in a country lot of money needs to be put into an athlete's training. It has either solely been a corporate house or the government to provide with necessary investment for a player in a particular sport. But sometimes it has also been seen that a player may partially be sponsored by both the government and private houses.

"Raising funds should not be exclusive to us. We are always there to help whenever needed but we want them to become financially independent. Corporates are ready to invest but they (NSFs) should ensure transparency and accountability," added the 2005 Padma Shri awardee.

"They can raise funds despite getting government grants. Both are not exclusive to each other. It's high time that they should take initiatives to raise money on their own. Sports like wrestling, hockey and badminton are generating money through various leagues but we are funding them," said the celebrated shooter when asked about whether the government is planning to cut down on the grants given to NSFs.