NRAI chief Kalikesh Singh Deo: Our job is to ensure we have a common minimum working plan with personal coaches

The issue of personal versus national coaches took centre stage ahead of the Paris Olympics, with the NRAI coming up with a long list of dos and don’ts for the former that led to some acrimony.

(From L-R) Jaspal Rana, coach of Paris Olympic bronze medallist of Manu Bhaker, Kalikesh Singh Deo and Manu Bhaker. | Photo Credit: X/@realmanubhaker

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) will work out a “common minimum programme” to ensure there is no animosity between personal and national coaches, said the newly-elected president of the federation, Kalikesh Singh Deo, on Monday.

The issue of personal versus national coaches took centre stage ahead of the Paris Olympics, with the NRAI coming up with a long list of dos and dont’s for the former that led to some acrimony, but the federation eventually resolved the issue.

“The idea is to ensure that the personal coach and the national programme... national coaches work hand in hand. Because for 70 per cent of the time, the athlete is going to be with the personal coach. They’ll be in and out of the team.

“So, there is a dependency on the personal coach. And I don’t think we can completely do away with that. It’s our job to ensure that we come up with a common minimum working plan in the long run for all our athletes,” said Kalikesh in an interaction with PTI.

He added that in the run-up to Paris Games, he tried to ensure smooth sailing between personal and national coaches.

“A large part of the effort building up to the Olympics was in ensuring that the ecosystem between personal coaches and national coaches is smoothened out. It was better than what it was before.

“Primarily, one of the first few things I did when I became acting president (in May 2023) was to create a space for personal coaches in the NRAI system, where the athletes can actually ask for recognition of their personal coach.

“And that’s where our efforts lie. Yes, there may be differences of opinion. And that’s where the high-performance team and the managers come into action,” he added.\

The frequent changes in the selection policy for the Olympic Games has been another sticking point between the shooters and the federation, and Kalikesh said he would try his best to ensure drastic changes are not made through amendments in the next Olympic cycle.

The federation came up with a new Olympic selection policy following the Tokyo Olympics setback in 2021 and amended it a couple of times leading up to the Paris Games.

“The Olympic policy is not decided by me alone. It’s decided by the selection committee and the technical committee. But, let me tell you this, that the policy has to closely mirror the format of the sport in the Olympics.

“Our Olympic policy has to be in sync with that. It needs to adapt to the current circumstances of the sport. And the competitiveness of our shooters. But on the whole, we would like to avoid making any drastic changes in the policy, certainly not interim,” he added.

“But yes, if there are compelling reasons for us to make it more transparent, to make it more fair to have better shooters to get the best shooter and give our team the best chances (in the Olympics), we have not hesitated to do that.”

The NRAI chief said this was not the time to completely do away with foreign coaches and ask the country’s Olympic medallists to take over their role, but added that the federation was gradually moving in that direction.

“We’re already talking to some of the foreign coaches (for the next Olympic cycle). At this point, I don’t think you can completely do away with foreign coaches. And really what we are looking is to get the best coaches, whether they are Indian or foreign.

“So it’s not the coaches’ nationality, but their competence and their ability to work with the team. But, in the longer run, yes. We need to get off our dependency on trying to find foreign coaches.

“We’ve got some very good shooters, who are good coaches, who are becoming good coaches, and who are already good coaches in the ecosystem. And we’ll just choose the best, irrespective of which country they come from,” he added.

He also said that the NRAI will fund the entire expenditure of the elite ISSF World Cup Final, scheduled to take place next month at the Karni Singh Ranges here.

“The NRAI is going to fund the entire competition, including the cash prize of Rs 1.5 crore for shooters here.

“Given the performance of Indian shooters at the Olympics, we thought this (organising the World Cup Final) is an absolutely perfect opportune moment for NRAI to demonstrate the capabilities and competence of Indian shooters on home ground.

“We’ve got our volunteer system where we’ve got shooters from across the country, about 500 young shooters, applying for it. It’ll be a great exposure for them (to see the top shooters in the world competing here),” he said.