Is India’s new sports law a game changer for athletes? ‘A valuable step’
The National Sports Governance Act is set to boost investment interest in Indian sports and the rights of athletes, analysts say
Among the key changes under the National Sports Governance Act, which was passed into law last week, a national sports board will be created to oversee all sports federations, including the powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India, while a tribunal will be formed to speed up dispute resolution.
“It is a valuable step. It provides for a statutory-based framework for the regulation of all national sports in the country, which we never had before,” said Russell A. Stamets, a partner at the New Delhi-based law firm Circle of Counsels, which has previously advised Indian sports federations and athletes.
Approved by President Droupadi Murmu, the new law follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address on August 15, in which he noted a shift in attitudes among Indian parents towards sports. Parents who once discouraged their children from taking up sports were now embracing them as a viable career path, Modi said.
Different sports in India have previously been overseen by their respective federations, ranging from the All India Football Federation to the Badminton Association of India. This fragmented approach has led to arbitrary decision-making by senior sports officials and sidelined the concerns of athletes, according to sports and legal experts.
“This law is a huge step forward for the rights of individual athletes who have basically been at the mercy of their boards entirely,” Stamets said.