The huge difference in prize money awarded to Rio medallists and their coaches is not an encouraging sign
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal during a felicitation handed cheques of Rs 2 cr to PV Sindhu and Rs 5 lakh to her coach Pullela Gopichand
During a felicitation ceremony in Mumbai on Tuesday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced cash awards of R75,000 and R50,000 for the two Rio Olympic silver and bronze medalists PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik respectively. In the same function the Chief Minister also announced a cash award of R25,000 for Sindhu’s coach Pullela Gopichand.
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Late last month, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal during a felicitation ceremony handed a cheque of R2 crore to Sindhu and R5 lakh to Gopichand. In Haryana, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar handed another cheque of R2.5 crore to Sakshi, but there was no mention about her coaches.
With due respect to these well wishers, isn’t there a huge disparity in the prize money awarded to the Rio medallists and their coaches?
Gymnast Dipa Karmakar’s coach Bishweshwar Nandi has been conferred the Dronacharya Award this year. A Dronacharya Award winner receives a citation and R7 lakh. The Haryana government announced cash award of R10 lakh for Sakshi’s coach Ishwar Singh Dahiya.
As per the government and IOA guidelines, Dahiya will also be entitled to receive 50 per cent of what Sakshi gets for winning the bronze. But since it was Kuldeep Singh, who accompanied the Indian team as coach in Rio, the cash award will be divided between Dahiya and Singh. Sindhu’s coach P Gopichand will also get half of what she gets.
While Sindhu’s cash award alone crosses the R13 crore, Sakshi has netted R4 crore so far and still counting. And this is apart from the BMW car, land, job, sponsorship deals etc being promised to them by the IOA and different state governments and institutions. Dipa has been gifted a BMW car too. Dipa finished fourth so she doesn’t qualify for IOA’s awards, but the Telangana and Haryana governments have announced cash awards of R50 lakh and R15 lakh respectively to the gymnast. Sindhu’s coach Pullela Gopichand can consider himself lucky as a BMW came his way too alongwith a fraction of the riches showered on her.
But can an athlete win a medal at the Olympics or any major sporting event on his own? Forget about winning, can he even qualify? So, is the role of a coach less important then? Doesn’t the coach deserve an equal share of the accolades too?
“Coaches and athletes are like two wheels of a bicycle. The coach is nothing without the athlete and the athlete is nothing without the coach,” says Nandi, quickly going on to clarify that it would be wrong to question the government in such matters.
“It will be wrong to say that the government doesn’t take care of the coaches. They do to whatever extent they can. But it will be very inspiring for the junior coaches in the country if the government recognises the effort put in by them, and brings in some equality in awards too.”
Gopichand seconds Nandi’s opinion: “I am very happy with the adulation I have got. It is much beyond my imagination and expectation. I am very happy with the support that I have got from SAI, BAI and the government over the years. But in general, across the board, and I am not talking only about coaches, but even our teachers, be it dance, music, physics, chemistry, math or English, they all should be awarded and rewarded suitably. It will be very demoralising for a teacher if you leave him or her out and reward the student alone for his or her success.”
Dipa Karmakar’s coach Bishweshwar Nandi
Coaches plan, prepare: Nandi
Nandi strongly believes it’s impossible for an athlete to succeed without a coach. He says it’s wrong to believe that it is the hard work, sacrifice and dedication of the athlete alone that brings success. “The coach too goes through the same emotions. Besides, a lot of research and planning goes into getting that perfect run, that perfect shot or perfect balance in competition,” concludes Nandi.
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