Sports policy cannot be measured by photographs of medal winners being felicitated, announcements made from podiums or occasional tournaments organised with fanfare. The real measure of a government’s commitment to sports is much simpler: whether a talented youngster, irrespective of his or her background, has access to proper facilities, competent coaching and, above everything else, a fair opportunity to be selected purely on merit. Judged against that standard, the Omar Abdullah Government still has considerable distance to travel before Jammu and Kashmir can claim to possess an athlete-centred sporting ecosystem.
The Government can legitimately point to initiatives undertaken in the sector. In August 2026, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah presented cash awards totalling ₹2.71 crore to 580 outstanding sportspersons and international athletes from J&K. Such recognition is welcome. Athletes who bring distinction to Jammu and Kashmir deserve both financial encouragement and public appreciation. But felicitating successful players cannot become a substitute for addressing the difficulties faced by thousands of youngsters who are still struggling to reach the stage where their talent can be recognised. The real question is not merely what happens to an athlete after winning a medal. It is what happens before that medal is won.
The Chief Minister himself has acknowledged deficiencies in sporting infrastructure. While honouring sportspersons in August, he spoke about shortages of synthetic tracks, quality playing surfaces and indoor facilities, particularly in areas where climatic conditions restrict outdoor training. That admission is significant. It demonstrates that the infrastructure deficit is not merely an allegation made by critics; it is a problem recognised by the Government itself.
But infrastructure cannot be understood merely in terms of constructing stadiums. A building without coaches, equipment, maintenance and regular access for players is not a sporting ecosystem. A striking example was reported from Kashmir in August: five synthetic athletics tracks, reportedly constructed at costs of approximately ₹6–7 crore each, were functioning without a dedicated qualified athletics coach at any of those facilities. That illustrates the fundamental problem with infrastructure-led publicity. A running track may photograph well, but without someone capable of identifying and developing an athlete, concrete and synthetic material cannot produce champions.
The Government therefore needs to move from infrastructure for display to infrastructure for development. A young player requires a chain of support: a playable ground close to home, appropriate equipment, qualified coaches, regular competition, strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, nutrition advice and eventually sports-science support. Every district cannot have every expensive facility, but every district should provide a credible entry point into competitive sport, linked to regional centres providing specialised training.
Even more fundamental is the issue of fair selection. For a young sportsperson, nothing can be more demoralising than believing that talent and hard work may not be enough to earn a place in a team. Selection must not merely be fair; it must visibly and demonstrably be fair. A sports administration that cannot inspire confidence in its selection process risks destroying motivation at the very stage when young athletes need encouragement most.
There should therefore be a uniform selection protocol applicable across recognised sporting disciplines. Trial dates should be publicly notified sufficiently in advance. Eligibility requirements and selection parameters should be declared before trials begin. Selectors should possess appropriate technical qualifications and disclose conflicts of interest. Wherever practical, performance at trials should be recorded and documented. Shortlists and final selections should be published promptly, and an effective time-bound grievance mechanism should be available to a player who believes the prescribed process was not followed.
Importantly, the J&K Sports Council’s own regulatory approach recognises the need for structured procedures. Its March 2025 circular required recognised associations to submit their calendars and directed them to conduct selection trials and UT championships, with the Council reserving consequences for associations violating its guidelines or suffering from governance failures. The Sports Council has also itself issued notifications for open selection trials, including for football teams. The administrative machinery for greater transparency therefore exists. What is required is to make transparency the universal rule rather than an occasional practice.
Government oversight is especially important because sports associations exercise enormous influence over the careers of young players. Selection for a J&K team can become the gateway to national exposure, scholarships, employment benefits and professional opportunities. The person controlling that gateway therefore exercises a public responsibility even where the immediate decision is being made by a sporting association. No deserving youngster should lose an opportunity because of favouritism, personal connections, institutional rivalries or an opaque selection process.
This is where the present approach requires structural reform rather than cosmetic correction. Holding another sports festival, distributing another set of tracksuits or organising another felicitation ceremony cannot answer questions about how teams are selected. Nor can announcing another stadium compensate for the absence of specialised coaching. The emphasis must move from events to institutions and from announcements to outcomes.
The geographical character of Jammu and Kashmir makes this even more important. Talent does not exist only in Jammu and Srinagar. A gifted footballer may emerge from a remote part of Kashmir; an exceptional athlete may come from Doda or Kishtwar; a boxer may emerge from Rajouri or Poonch; and another talented youngster may be waiting in Kathua, Udhampur or any other district. If serious facilities and trials remain concentrated around major urban centres, geography itself becomes an unfair selection mechanism.
The answer should be a pyramid beginning at school and village level. Schools should form the first layer of talent identification. District-level competitions should provide the second. Promising performers should then move into professionally coached regional academies before entering UT-level competition. Digital registration of athletes could allow performances and achievements to follow a player throughout this journey. Talent would then become harder to overlook and selection decisions easier to scrutinise.
Coaching requires equally urgent attention. Jammu and Kashmir does not merely need grounds; it needs people who know what to do on those grounds. Coaches should be appointed according to transparent professional standards and periodically evaluated according to athlete development rather than simply years spent in service. Former national and international players can also be systematically integrated into mentoring programmes. The objective should be to convert accumulated sporting experience into the next generation of talent.
Sports science is another area where J&K must become more ambitious. Modern competitive sport involves biomechanics, nutrition, strength conditioning, psychology, injury prevention and rehabilitation. A talented youngster competing against athletes supported by these systems begins at an obvious disadvantage if his or her training consists largely of physical practice without scientific support. Regional high-performance centres should therefore provide shared sports-science facilities across disciplines rather than attempting to duplicate expensive resources everywhere.
None of this diminishes the value of the ₹2.71 crore distributed among 580 successful sportspersons. Those athletes earned recognition and deserved it. But awards recognise yesterday’s achievement. Sports policy must create tomorrow’s champions.
That distinction should define the next stage of sports reform in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Omar Abdullah Government has spoken about strengthening sports facilities down to district and tehsil levels. Its own public statements acknowledge that deficiencies remain. The opportunity therefore exists to move beyond ceremonial recognition and address the structural weaknesses that affect athletes before they become famous.
J&K does not suffer from a shortage of sporting talent. What it requires is a system capable of discovering that talent without prejudice, developing it professionally and selecting it transparently.
A youngster entering a trial should never have to wonder whom he knows. He should only have to demonstrate how well he plays.
A runner should not need political access; she should need a stopwatch and a fair track. A footballer should not need patronage; he should need ability, fitness and performance. A boxer should enter the ring knowing that victory will count more than connections outside it.
That is the sporting culture Jammu and Kashmir should aspire to build.
The ultimate test of sports policy is therefore not the number of ceremonies conducted or photographs released. It is whether an unknown child standing today on an ordinary playground somewhere in Jammu and Kashmir can reasonably believe that, with talent and hard work, there is a fair and accessible pathway from that playground to wearing the J&K jersey.
When that confidence exists, sports policy will cease to be cosmetic and become transformational.
Manzoor Bhat Spokesperson BJP J&K
