IOA welcomes Sports Ministry’s decision to remove salary caps for coaches

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA), on Saturday, welcomed the Sports Ministry’s decision to remove a salary cap of Rs 2 lakhs for Indian coaches training elite athletes.

Rajeev Mehta, Secretary-General of IOA said that this salary cap was limiting for coaches who have been producing high-performance International athletes.

“IOA and our member National Sports Federations wholeheartedly appreciate the decision of the Sports Ministry to remove the salary cap of domestic coaches. The cap was limiting for our coaches who have been producing high-performance international medallists,” Mehta told ANI.

“This decision will also encourage more sportspersons to choose coaching as a profession now. With new steps to improve the coaching education, domestic coaches would be on par with international coaches in the future,” he added.

Recently Kiren Rijiju Sports Minister said that the government is all set to remove the salary cap for those coaches who are giving results consistently in the international circuit.

“Several Indian coaches are showing very good results and need to be rewarded for their hard work. The government is also keen to attract the best coaching talent from across the country to train our elite athletes and we do not want the cap on compensation to be a deterrent for good coaches to join,” said the Sports Minister.

The contract for those coaches will be for four years to ensure that elite athletes training under Indian coaches have continuity of coaching in one Olympic cycle.

“The increased remuneration and longer contract period is also to attract ex-elite athletes into the high-performance sporting ecosystem and to use their experience and skill to train athletes bound for major international competitions, including the Olympics,” a ministry release stated.

The remuneration for those coaches will be decided based on ex-athletes performance too.

“All new coaches and existing coaches who are given the new contract will be imparting training at National Camps and SAI’s National Center of Excellence (NCOEs), and will be selected jointly by the Sports Ministry and the National Sporting Federations,” the release said.