BENGALURU, Oct 13:
Calling on Indians to come out in large numbers to support sports in the country, Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said to bring a sporting culture, people must be involved.
He was speaking at the ‘6th World Summit on Ethics and Leadership in Sports’ organised by the Art of Living along with World Forum for Ethics in Business here.
“Attachment with the players is good, but attachment with the sport is critical. If people don’t watch then there is no money, players will not get the money, if there is no money there will be no career,” Rijiju said.
Addressing the gathering, he said, to bring a sporting culture people must be involved and our stadiums should not be empty.
“Directly and indirectly we have to involve people, it is not enough to say promote sports, encourage players. You (people) must be part of that encouragement. We have to be there ourselves. As a country of over 1.35 billion people we must make not only the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) the richest club in the world, but we must make all the sporting federations and clubs in India richest in the world. We can do it,” he added.
Rijiju had earlier held the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led cabinet.
Noting that India has a rich tradition of sports and its sporting history goes back to ancient times, he said, “over the years the evolvement of the society did not bring the sports culture in our country to an extent we would desire.”
It is important to have sports culture in any society, he said, highlighting that sports is a career also.
“When we speak about creating a sports ecosystem, then we speak about sports as a career also. One is not involved in a sport not only as a player, but can be a coach, manager among other things like- in sports related universities, businesses, corporates and services and so on. It is a big ecosystem providing great opportunities for jobs,” he added.
Rijiju said India and its government believe in clean sports and clean competition, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been emphasising on it
Further highlighting various initiatives and campaign by the government to follow the ethics of the games and clean sports, and the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) being world class, he said, “our facilities and system are well geared up for the change and I’m sure that India will definitely emerge as one of the powerful sporting nations on the planet.” (PTI)
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