by Ronald Kramer

At the invitation of the Dutch ambassador Bob Hiensch a ‘High Level Sport Lunch’ took place on March 10^th, 2010, at his residence in New Delhi. The meeting was highly successful and initiated a further cooperation between the Netherlands and India in the field of sports.  The guests were:

Netherlands:

Maurits Hendriks, Technical Director NOC-NSF and Chef de Mission London Summer Olympics 2012, former National Hockey Coach for the Netherlands (Olympic gold as assistant to Roelant Oltmans in 1996 and Olympic gold in 2000 as head coach) and National Hockey Coach of Spain , George de Jong, Director Innosport, Rein Jansma, Director Zwarts&Jansma Architects, Ronald Kramer, Director DRK, Sports Management and Consultancy, George Taylor, President/CEO, Sports Arts, Theo Groothuizen, Counsellor, Science & Technology,  Guus Lamers, First Secretary, Economic and Commercial Affairs.

India:

Mrs. Khullar, Secretary Sports, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, GoI, Pravir Krishn, Jt Secretary & Special Officer, Common Wealth Games, Sports Authority of India, Alberto Colaco, General Secretary, All India Football Federation, Abhinav Bindra, Shooter, Gold Medallist Beijing Olympics, Hiren (Henry) Sheth, MD, Sportina, Representative Desso Sports Systems.

Many topics were addressed during the animated discussions. The good will to cooperate in the field of sports was confirmed by the Ambassador as well as by Mrs Khullar. However, Mrs Khullar differentiated hardware and software. Tenders will be given out for hardware, open for everyone, including Dutch companies. Tenders are expected for sport accommodations and sport scientific institutions. The distance between government and sports federations seems still big (compared to that in the Netherlands in 1980).

It is a problem for the government to realize objectives (sport for all and top sport) with limited resources. Co-operation can therefore be important. The Indian soccer association named the Dutch youth training and women’s soccer as an example. The latter especially drew the attention of Mrs. Khullar. There was actually talk of an exchange of women’s teams.

The conclusion was that a co-operation could be established through the following means:

• Institutional co-operation
• Scientifical co-operation (sports health care, nutrition, training/monitoring)
• Exchange of best practices and people
• Board and management of sports (exchange on governmental level)

In short, a promising step forward. Progress will be monitored by the Embassy.