NITI Aayog drafts action plan targeting 50 medals at 2024 Olympics

September 23, 2016

New Delhi, Sep 23: Following the disappointment with India’s performance at the Rio Olympics 2016, The Indian think tank National Institution for Transforming India or NITI Aayog on Wednesday has announced an action plan named “Let's Play” with an aim to improve India’s medal prospects in the future so that the country wins at least 50 medals at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

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The 20-point plan highlights some key areas that require improvement. These action points have been divided into a short-term vision (4 to 8 years) and a medium to long-term vision (8 to 15 years).

The plan also aims to initiate larger debate among stakeholders and public at large on how to improve sporting performance in the country.

Announcing the initiative, NITI Aayog tweeted: "NITI Aayog to release 'Let's Play' - An Action Plan for Revitalising Sports in India. Our target: 50 Olympic Medals!"

"We are a large and diverse nation. Sports can be a great means of national integration," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on NITI Aayog's website.

The points include targeting a group of priority sports, organisation of sportspersons into three groups for each priority sport, harnessing the potential of indigenous and regional sports, world class coaches and a grading system for coaches.

Special emphasis will be given to implement the National Sports Code and Sports Bill, to formulate an injury insurance scheme, strengthening and scaling-up of existing Sports Authority of India (SAI) training centres and facilitating creation of sports academies for individual sports among others.

Releasing the document, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the short term and long term targets include winning at least 50 medals at the 2024 Olympics and to tap potential sportspersons from the tender age of eight years.

The panel has also advocated that the age limit for training of sportspersons be lowered from the current 12 years to eight years. Besides, the NITI Aayog has also advocated identifying talent for sports among five-year-old children.

It also felt that a few sports be identified as had been done by Kenya and Jamaica to help Indian young talents to excel.

"To improve the performance of sports and demonstrate medal winning performance, it is important to prioritize ten sports and develop an outcome oriented action plan for each of these sports. Countries like Kenya and Jamaica participate in only two Olympics sports but have managed to get a medal tally of 100 and 78 respectively," a NITI Aayog official said.

In the short term plans, the panel suggests facilitating creation of more sports academies for individual sports, implementing a National Sports Code and Sports Bill and the long term measures include development of sports infrastructure through PPP mode.

NITI Aayog officials said that the National Sports Code and Sports Bill, 2013, which is stuck for a long time, needs to be enacted at the earliest to ensure structural changes in policies concerning sports administrators and the coaches.

The bill seeks to fix terms and tenures of the sports administrators. The bill also seeks to fix age limit of sports administrators, a move allegedly opposed by the political class.

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January 13,2020

Mumbai, Jan 13: India captain Virat Kohli indicated at dropping himself down the batting order to accommodate both Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul in the playing XI against Australia in the first ODI of the three-match series starting Tuesday.

With vice-captain Rohit Sharma an automatic pick, the team management is left with tough choice of selecting either Dhawan or Rahul in the XI. But the skipper sees no reason why both can't play together.

"Look, a guy in form is always good for the team. ...You obviously want to have the best players available and then chose from what the combination should be for the team. There might be a possibility that all three (Rohit, Shikhar and Rahul) might play. It will be interesting to see what balance we want to take in on the field," Kohli said on the eve of the match.

Asked if he would he be happy to bat lower down the order, Virat said,"Yeah, big possibility. I would be very happy to do so. Look I am not possessive about where I play. I am not insecure about where I bat," said the skipper.

For Kohli, it is more important as to what kind of leadership legacy he leaves behind rather than chase personal glory.

"Being the captain of the team, it is my job to make sure that the next lot is also ready. A lot of the other people might not look at it that way, but your job as a captain is not only to look after the team right now, but also to prepare a team that you leave behind when you eventually pass it onto someone else," he added.

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July 3,2020

Karachi, Jul 3: Pakistan limited overs captain Babar Azam is tired of his constant comparisons with India skipper Virat Kohli and says he would rather be compared to the greats at home.

Babar, six years younger to Kohli, has a long way to go in getting close to Kohli's staggering numbers across formats. The India skipper has 70 hundreds to his name and averages more than 50 in all three formats.

"I would be more happy if you compare to me say a Javed Miandad, Muhammad Yousuf or Younis Khan. Why compare me to Kohli or any Indian player?" asked the 25-year-old, who is in England with the national team, said in an online media interaction on Thursday.

Babar has scored 16 international hundreds and averages more than 50 in ODIs and T20s. In 26 Tests, he has scored 1850 runs at 45.12.

He also said that he is not targeting any English bowler for the series next month.

"I don’t see who the bowler is or his reputation. I just try to play each ball on merit. England no doubt has a top bowling attack and they have advantage of playing at home but this is a challenge I want to score runs in," he said.

Before the squad’s departure for England, Pakistan batting coach Younis Khan said that pacer Joffra Archer will be a handful for the Pakistani batsmen.

Babar said that he would try to play every English bowler on merit but conceded that after getting runs in Australia last year, he was keen to leave his footprint in the coming Test and T20 series in England.

Reminded that some former Test players had already written off Pakistan for the England series, Babar said they were entitled to their opinion.

"But we don’t have a bad team and already we have been enjoying our training. It is good to be back on the field after such a long lay-off. I think we have the bowlers to trouble them like Abbas, Naseem, Shaheen and others while we have some experience in our batting line-up."

Babar said he would love to get a triple century in a Test match.

"When you score a century, you naturally want to go on and convert that into a double or a triple century. This is something I would like to do during the Test series.

"I like to play my natural game but my selection of shots depends on the conditions and bowlers."

Babar also ruled out any problems in the Pakistan dressing room due to the presence of former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was sacked last year.

But he said that since Muhammad Rizwan had been playing in all formats for Pakistan in recent times, he would be the starting keeper in the Test series ahead of Sarfaraz.

"I think we first have to give Rizwan a proper chance and Sarfaraz is there as back up."

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March 3,2020

Sydney, Mar 3: Former Australia pacer Brett Lee foresees a "different" looking India making their maiden T20 Women's World Cup final and attributed their rise to the emergence of star players like 16-year-old Shafali Verma.

Besides opener Shafali, experienced leg-spinner Poonam Yadav has been the other match-winner for India in the competition. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side topped the group stage with four wins in as many games and play their semifinal here on Thursday.

"They've never reached the final but this is a different India team from the one they’ve seen before. They've combined match-winners in Shafali Verma and Poonam Yadav with consistent players with both bat and ball," Lee was quoted as saying by ICC.

"We've always known they have some of the best players in the world but now Harmanpreet Kaur has a team around her that can support the big players, and fill in the gaps when they have an off day."

Only a special effort from their opponents can stop India from reaching their maiden final, feels Lee.

They'll go into the semi-finals full of confidence and it will take an excellent team to stop them from reaching the Final."

Talking more about Shafali, who has got 47, 46, 39, and 29 so far, Lee backed the teen sensation to make a bigger score in the semifinal.

"Shafali Verma has been excellent at the top of the order, she’s brought a fearless energy to India’s batting and been brilliant to watch.

"You feel she can go even bigger as well – she hasn't reached 50 yet, which is both exciting for those watching and worrying for the bowlers.

"We saw from the opener against Australia just how good India can be, and it’s no surprise they’ve continued that form to top Group A," he added.

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