Monday Titbits

Few interesting titbit news on this Monday of Jun 2018

1. Last week Haryana Govt issued one notification by which  it was  announced that any sports persons who is in the employment of Haryana  Govt, will have to give  1/3rd of prize money and 1/3 rd  of the income from endorsements back to govt. The reason being that  they are employed by the Govt and to participate in any tournament govt grant them leave for practice and actual  playing days of the the tournament or the games. It will be limited only to professional events and leagues, and does not include what is earned while representing the country. It is an attempt to curtail the flouting of service conditions by sports person, which is apparently resented by other employees. Ashok Khemka, Haryana Secretary for sports, hinted that-  this proposal is not without precedent, in academic institutions, it is common for income from external consultancies to be shared by the university. Similarly if you are employed by the state and you want to sell your services to outsider, then you need to pay the state. The main problem is that in this case it is not the case of any govt employee playing the sport and earning from the same, in this case the sport persons are hired by the govt precisely for  their sporting achievements, and not because they are academically qualified for the particular job, which means that treating the time they spend on the particular sport, as a leakage from their terms of employment is  not correct. Actually the fact is that few decades back when there was not much money involved in any sports, not even in cricket, that time for excellent performances by any sport persons the reward was generally a govt job, which gave leeway to sport person to spend time for practice and  playing without  any loss to his earnings. There was a time that even in cricket the test player were getting only Rs 250 to Rs 500 per match. For them the situation changed in late 70s and early 80s when cricket started being televised and its popularity increased. With this notifications there was too much hue and cry among sports persons, some even mentioned that most of them are not highly educated, and their career span in sport is limited, and they may not be able to get any suitable job after they retire from sports, and hence this notification is against the sport persons and in future youngster may not opt to  participate in sports etc etc. So within a day Haryana govt had to withdraw this notification, to pacify the sport person employed by them.  But presently in few sports the situation is quite different- like Cricket, Badminton, Football, Hockey , Kabaddi, Table Tennis, Wrestling have their own professional leagues where players earn good amount of money, and plus they get even endorsement deals also. Now a days very few sport persons aspire for govt jobs, on the contrary they aspire to be picked in the professional leagues. Even some sports like tennis, badminton  have become total professional where player  earn money, even if they lose in 1st round also.                                                                   The fact is that during last 7 decades, ie after independence, govt has not done much for the sport persons, except them offering some govt jobs. Which ever player has achieved excellence till date,  it is because of his/her hard work and sacrifices made by  his/her family members. I can count at least 100s of such players in different sports who have come up with their own efforts and hardships put by their family.                             Presently Sport Ministry is headed by an Olympic medalist, and I hope this episode should be an eye opener, and the concrete effort should be made for the national Sport Policy for each and every sport played in the country.
2. Tennis- French Open ended yesterday and as predicted by all it was Rafeal Nadal who won the  men’s championship by beating  Dominic Thiem in the final in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, Thiem gave him  a good fight in first set, and also till the middle of 2nd set, but afterwards it was Nadal all the way. After so many Grand Slam tournaments, it has so happened in French Open that both the top seeded in Men and Women draw won the tournament. On Saturday top seeded Simona Halep, in Women draw, won the tournament by beating Sloane Stephens in 3 sets 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

I think, it is after a long  time that my week day blog  is full on sport.

Awaiting your views/comments/feed backs.