‘Expert committee’ to nurture sporting talent

The Delhi government has announced its intention to constitute a “committee of experts” to provide assistance to school students to excel in sports under its ‘Play and Progress’ scheme.

These “experts” will include individuals who have represented India in the Olympics or won medals at Asian Games and have directly coached players.

It also plans to form a similar committee to support outstanding sportspersons for receiving training and coaching under the ‘Mission Excellence’ scheme, launched to provide support to sportspersons who have brought laurels to Delhi at the national and international level.

Job profile

The Sports Branch of the Directorate of Education (DoE) has given a call for such people and said that the job profile of the “committee of experts” will be to scrutinise applications of players, select players, recommend the quantum of assistance, devise the training schedule and review performances periodically.

The government started the ‘Play and Progress’ scheme not just for identification of talented Delhi students but also to support such talent more effectively and to have a conducive system in place for development of sports in the Capital so that participation at highest levels increases.

The government said Delhi has stood first in the national school games for many years and the scheme will help provide assistance in every way, including controlled training to promote and groom talented students for participation at the highest level of competitions.

‘Mission Excellence’

The ‘Mission Excellence’ scheme aims to support 100 top-level sportspersons every year for receiving training and coaching to prepare themselves to compete in international tournaments and championships, and to achieve sporting excellence.