Secretary Review: Sports Secretary – Nitish Reddy

You’ll find the other manifesto reviews here.

The colour code used in this review works like this:

• Green – completed already

• Yellow– partially completed and/or will most likely be completed before end of tenure

• Red – not completed, or left to future Secretaries

 

INFRASTRUCTURE

1. Proposal for new badminton courts will be put forward

It was initially planned to reconstruct the athletics stadium pavilion to include a first floor. A proposal was made to set up badminton courts, table tennis tables, and two volleyball courts on this new first floor. This proposal was approved by both the Dean and Prakriti. However, this plan was later rejected by Director. The reasons are not clear at the moment. Nitish is not confident that it will be approved any time soon.

For any plan to be implemented, it must be approved first by the Dean and then is examined thoroughly by Prakriti. It will not go through if either one rejects it.

This point is green because Nitish has only promised to propose a plan, but hasn’t promised that the courts will be constructed.

2. Lights will be put up for nets at Chemplast

Although this point was discussed in Sports Organising Committee (SOC) meetings, Nitish is not confident that this will happen is his term. However, lights at the nets at Chemplast have been required for a few years now, and Nitish hopes that his successor works on it.

3. Proposal for a new sightscreen for Chemplast will be put forward

The proposal was approved by the authorities and will be implemented before Inter-IIT 2015, which is going to be hosted by Madras.

4. Relaying of the field between hockey and football grounds will be done

This was also approved and will be done before the JUL-NOV 2015 semester. Work will begin shortly and will be completed over the summer.

5. The road between Tamiraparani and Pampa will be converted to a basketball half court

This point was discussed in SOC meetings and was expected to be completed without any issues. However, during one of the meetings, Dean, along with the Adviser and the Engineering Unit decided to scrap the plan. A proposal to use the area for cricket instead, was approved. Currently, a mat has been placed on the area and a cricket net is going to be put up.

Readers are advised to note that this was not in the Secretary’s hands.

6. Proposal for converting the existing basketball courts to synthetic courts will be followed up

This proposal has been approved and the work will be done by the summer.

 

NEW INITIATIVES

1. Spinfo – Sports Newsletter: Sports newsletter will be published online three times a year.

The first edition was not published. Reasons are unclear as to why this was so (according to Nitish, it didn’t look as good as he had hoped), even though it was written on time. The second and third editions will be published by April.

2. Scaling up of Sportsfest: Sportsfest will be given a name, logo and webpage on the IITM sports site; proposal for introduction of cash prizes will be put forward.

None of this was done.

In order to generate money to fund the cash prizes, the SOC needed to meet with potential sponsors well before Sportsfest. The period between NSO selections and Sportsfest when they worked on it proved to be insufficient to contact and meet with enough sponsors. Sportsfest went on as planned, but there were no cash prizes.

3. Revamped sports website: Outdated parts of the current website will be updated and a Player Bio page for each and every Institute Team Player will be included.

The new sports website can be visited at https://students.iitm.ac.in/sports/.

However, not all player Bios have been included yet. Football, badminton and a few others have not been updated yet.

4. Recognition for Inter-IIT Players: Awards given out on Gymkhana Day will be mentioned in the year-end sports newsletter along with their photos. Also, a Wall of Fame will be set up in Gymkhana Office.

This point can only be completed on Gymkhana day, and thus it is difficult to evaluate it at this point.

Regarding the Wall Of Fame, the proposal was approved by the authorities. The WOF will be set up in the third floor of the gymkhana.

5. Sports Endowment Fund: A corpus fund, aimed specifically at the upbringing of sports, will be started by raising money from Alumni.

As Inter-IIT 2015 is being hosted by IIT Madras, Nitish and the SOC chose to use the funds raised for the Corpus fund to improve the current sports infrastructure. Six crore rupees was raised this year (with the help of IAR), and is going to be used for the following:

• The athletics track is going to be made synthetic.
• 2 additional volleyball courts are going to be set up near the new boy’s hostel.
• 2-3 new synthetic basketball courts are going to be set up.

6. 2 members of the Inter-IIT Contingent will be given the responsibility to cover the event and post daily updates of the same.

This was done using the Inter-IIT page on Facebook. Nitish plans on introducing a new 2-person team dedicated to posting updates on matches from next year.

7. NSO Water-polo, Skating will be introduced next year.

NSO skating was introduced in 2014. Although, it saw very little enthusiasm from freshies. This can be expected to improve with time.

NSO Water-polo wasn’t introduced as a separate NSO, but selections were done amongst the NSO Aquatics members.

8. NSO T-Shirts will be designed and made available to all the NSO students.

Nitish says that this will be done in the next month. The shirt has been designed, but orders have not been taken yet.

It is difficult to see the point in making NSO T-shirts available so long after NSO practice sessions began. The practice sessions started in August 2014 and end in mid-April 2015. Hence, this point is being marked in red, and not in yellow.

9. Scorer App will be designed such that updates are sent automatically to the website.

10. Photography contest will be introduced for Schroeter.

The contest will be introduced during Schroeter finals week. Finals week is the period when the finals of all sports are played consecutively over one week.

11. A sports calendar will be prepared with tentative schedules of Sportsfest, SPL, Dean’s Trophy, IIT-M Chess Open, IIT-M Bridge Open, GF&KR Basketball Tournament and Schroeter.

Readers should note that the sports calendar was shared only on 23rd February, long after Sportsfest ended, and just when Schroeter began.

CLUBS

1. Skating club will be introduced. Also, a skating competition will be held in Sangam Skating Rink

The skating club was not introduced, but the competition is said to held in April.

2. Pool/Snooker facility will be introduced.

This facility is planned to be set up in the third floor of the gymkhana, along with the Wall Of Fame. The Dean has not approved this yet, and the pool/snooker tables can be bought only if the Dean approves. It seems unlikely that this will happen in the current term.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Sports Premier League: Cash prizes and/or goodies will be introduced to incentivised and bring glamour to SPL.

Here again, cash prizes can only be introduced if sponsors can be obtained. The SOC did not meet with potential sponsors on time. SPL will go on as planned in April, but there will not be any cash prizes.

2. Club Cards: A rule stating that approved cards to be bought within 7 days of approval will be implemented

The Secretary claims that this rule was implemented in the odd semester. He decided to entirely scrap the card system in the even semester. Entry to badminton and tennis courts and the gym no longer requires any card.

In order to deal with the inevitable rise in usage of these facilities, the Secretary has decided to keep them open until 10:30 pm, two and a half hours later than the previous closing time.

3. NSO and Institute Team Orientation Session will be held before the start of NSO selections

4. Fundae sessions will be organised for gym to promote a gymming culture.

5. A list of local tournaments will be made for different sports.

 

 

 

Note: The percentage completion rate is only one of the indicators towards a secretary’s effectiveness.  Thus, readers are requested to go through the entire review to understand his tenure better.

It should be noted that some of Nitish’s achievements like scrapping the card system, introduction of the first ever Women’s Schroeter and upgrading the athletics track were not points on his manifesto, and hence are not reflected in the ‘completed’ percentage. Further, Nitish claims that a few points, like the new basketball courts and the badminton courts, could not be completed due to factors that were beyond his control.

Note to future Sports Secretary Candidates:

As all the points on the manifesto do not carry equal weightage (for example, there is not a great need for a scorer app, and the impact of re-laying a football/hockey field is far greater), future Secretaries are urged to rank their manifesto points with respect to their importance. This is will ensure that the secretary’s rating is truly representative of the work he/she has done.