Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has said his ministry will be allowing open-field practice in the country in a phased manner.
Speaking at a webinar, 'Corona & Sports: The Champions Speak', organized by FICCI on Sunday, Rijiju explained the steps his ministry is taking to bring sports across the country back on track. The first step to that, he said, involved allowing top-level athletes to go out and practise again, even as India's nationwide lockdown enters phase 3 (May 4-17).
Rijiju said that the first priority for this open-field practice would be given to those who have qualified for the Olympics.
"First of all, we will identify those players and teams who have qualified for the Olympics. Since the Olympics is next year, we have time. Those Indian players who are going to figure in Olympic qualification matches, we will allow them to practise.
"I know if players go through a gap of three-four months, it will have a negative impact on their entire approach," he said explaining the rationale behind allowing partial relaxation initially.
"I wanted them to start playing from May 3, from today, but the National Disaster Management Act does not permit this, legally," he added. "Sporting events are not under the necessary list, they are not of essential requirement. So, it does not get the relaxation."
Rijiju also confirmed that the opening of the senior national camps would be delayed.
"Maybe it will go beyond August or September because we don't know exactly what's going to happen, but we know this coronavirus is going to stay for some time," he said.
Addressing the athletes on call -- including Indian women's hockey captain Rani Rampal, footballer Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and cricketer Robin Uthappa -- Rijiju explained that while they can expect to return to practice by the end of the month, there will not be any competitive matches in the near future.
"Tomorrow or day after, I will sit in a meeting [to identify the way forward] and I assure my players that they can expect some kind of relaxation from the ministry that will allow them to practise.
"National priority is the health. We will not compromise health and safety. Keeping this in mind, we will start relaxing one by one."
Speaking in the same session, India's national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand felt that people will have to adapt.
"There are people on the roads, there are migrant workers, there are people in the construction [sector] who have lost jobs, we have bigger issues on hand," he said. "As far as sport is concerned, if it is a one-or-two-or-three month thing, I think we can still manage. If it goes longer, I think adaptation is the key."
Gopichand suggested that the way tournaments are conducted would need to be redefined.
"Let's take badminton as a sport -- if I have a grassroots-level tournament and we have 3,000 people travelling from across the country to play a tournament, it may not be feasible in the new normal.
"Leagues are the way forward. We might need to have more state, district, local, sub-local leagues and only the top few can come together and play for a longer period of time and stay together in quarantine facility and continue to play. Or leagues can be in quarantine facilities which continue to play match after match."
Speaking about the broader spectrum of fitness and health, Gopichand said that the priority was to ensure athletes stay in a positive frame of mind.
"We need to find out ways in which [young kids] can stay physically more literate, their movement skills are developed in short spaces, and if this is the new normal, we probably need a set of sports which actually keep people fit at home itself.
"I think it's important to keep our ideas sharp and decision-making quick, with health as the first priority and then sport."