Lack of sponsors a big problem

Lack of sponsorships for the county’s elite sportsmen and women has been a big problem. Forget the national level sportsmen and women but even the top most local Olympians too are finding it hard to survive due to lack of sponsorships.

Olympians Chinthana Vidanage and Thilini Jayasinghe are finding it extremely hard to pursue their sports careers due to lack of proper sponsorships or financial backing from the Ministry of Sports. Even the monthly allowance granted for the handful of top most sportsmen and women was stopped after the last year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

Since then, these Olympians have been struggling alone to meet expenses of their sports careers. It is their love for sports and passion that has persuaded them to continue with their sports activities.

If this is the fate of the country’s top most sportsmen and women - the Olympians, one could imagine how pathetic would be the experience of other national level persons and poolists in other age groups in various other sports.

It is hard for top sportsmen and women to survive without proper financial backing, either from a sponsor or a financial grant from the Sports Ministry. The success behind Sri Lanka’s success story in international sports arena in the late 90s and the beginning of this decade was the lucrative sports sponsorships secured by the Sports Ministry.

During that era, each sport was found a national sponsor and in addition to that, the top most sportsmen and women were found individual sponsors as well. For an example, athletics had a national sponsor while the top athletes in the national pool at that time had their own individual sponsors.

That was a great relief for the poor but talented athletes in the national pool. Those sponsorships even covered their housing, employment and transport problems, keeping the athletes in a good frame of mind so that they could fully concentrate on their sports careers.

Investment

That was an investment for the future and the athletes who were at their peak at that time made maximum use of that opportunity. That eventually led Sri Lanka to win its first Olympic medal in 52 years, an Asian Games after 24 years and an IAAF World Championship medal for the first time ever.

Unfortunately we do not have any such vision at present and the elite sportsmen and women are undergoing immense hardships in their endeavour to survive in the international arena. How could we expect high ‘returns’ from our sportsmen and women when we don’t ‘offer’ them anything noteworthy and don’t make any investment?

Vithanage who brought glory to Sri Lanka at Commonwealth Games is definitely an investment for the future but the poor lad will now have to go from pillar to post without a sponsor.

Jayasinghe, who became the first woman shuttler to represent Sri Lanka in Olympic history, will be captaining the Sri Lanka national team at next week’s World Championships in China. Yet, she has to struggle to sustain without a sponsor or any financial grant.

There are enough and more talented national level sportsmen and women who need a helping hard. If not, their sports careers could well have premature deaths. True, money is not everything but they need a proper financial backing to go places in the highly competitive sports arena.

It is high time the Sports Ministry identify future medal prospects at World, Asian and South Asian level. Every possible assistance and support should be given to sharpen their skills. The world sports arena is highly competitive and professional. In order to compete with the world’s best, our lads and lasses too need to incur heavy expenses for material and training.

We have pointed out these facts over and over but the officials seem to be in the land of nod. With next year’s Asian Games fast approaching, it is high time we pull up our socks and gear up for the future. Last minute arrangements would never make a champion or a gold medalist.

Speak to any of the world class athlete or an Olympian. They have made immense sacrifice to reach top. Millions of dollars have been invested to boost their sports careers. They have made numerous sacrifices to reach the pinnacle.

Future prospects

We too should learn a lesson from our past mistakes and identify what our real future prospects are. Once that is done, every possible cent from the Sports Ministry budget should be invested to look after those sportsmen and women.

Perhaps, the budgetary allocations to the Ministry of Sports may be insufficient. If so, the Sports Ministry officials could use their good office to attract sponsors so that the Ministry too could not become a heavy burden to the Government. Instead of being confined to their general work load, the officials too should go that extra mile to woo private sector backing for sport.

In return, each national sports association (NSA) could give the best possible mileage to satisfy their sponsors. It should be a mutually beneficial business association so that the national poolists could progress smoothly.

All unnecessary spending on the officials and sending Sports Ministry officials for international sports events such as Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympics should be stopped so that those monies too could be invested on our athletes.

Many ministry officials have made numerous joy rides to many international sports events stating that they too should get first hand information and should enhance their knowledge. But what is the contribution they have made to develop sports over the past couple of decades, except for burning millions of valuable public funds.

We must make a careful study of all those mistakes and make our athletes kings. Our sportsmen and women should be allowed to train without any mental worries. The top most Olympic and international level sportsmen and women should immediately get the Sports Ministry grant once more, at least until the next Asian Games in 2010.