NOCSL Chief Suresh Subramaniam – a man with a mission

NOCSL President Suresh Subramaniam 

• “We should start qualifying for the Olympics on merit and start winning medals”: Subramaniam

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Suresh Subramaniam, who won a second four-year term as President of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL), ascribed his victory at the elections to honesty, hard work and unselfishness.

“When I took over in 2018, there were a lot of allegations about finances and all that. Prior to that, I was never with the Olympic committee, and I didn’t know where the NOCSL was,” Subramaniam told the Daily FT.

“I promised that I would clean the place up, which I did. To be honest, there were a lot of procedures that were not in place. All that has been addressed. Whether I am the president or not, the place has to run. It is exactly what I did to the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA). I gave up in 2017 and it is running on its own merit.”

Subramaniam said that he was confident of victory before the election on two grounds. He beat Major-General Palitha Fernando by 21 votes to 12.

“I am a task master, I got more votes than last time they endorsed me for what I have done. I have collected so much money in the kitty there is about Rs. 200 million. Nobody took the money and went on foreign trips. That money is not for the federation but for the athletes,” said Subramaniam. In the 2018 election, Subramaniam beat Rohan Fernando by 18 votes to 12.

“The first time when I came nobody knew me. The second was when I got going, everybody knew what I had done for sports and what I was doing for sports. For the first time in the history of the NOCSL we made a Rs. 19 million profit in 2020. I can tell you it will be more than that figure in 2021.”

Being a non-governmental and non-profit organisation, Subramaniam said that the NOCSL has to run on charity, virtually on sponsorships.

“The people who were involved in helping me in tennis, of course it was a one sport and sponsorship dealing was much smaller, the NOCSL is a different story. Today we have 33 sports involved with us and we had huge sponsors. I must be thankful to Akbar Bros, MAS Holdings, Brandix Holdings and Sunshine Holdings, they are my big sponsors. On top of that there are others like Crysbro, SEGP, even Rupavahini and Sirasa all of them are on board. That comes with honesty,” said Subramaniam.

“People know when they invest and support me that I am there to produce results. Nothing will be taken home with me. I am not there for it. My target is Sri Lanka must win a medal and must continue to win medals. That is how I run the organisation. I don’t want the organisation to stop when I leave. After I leave, they must do even better. So, we have to put the procedures in place, that’s why SLTA is doing so well. It is one sport that never had problems.”

“Some people, unfortunately, when their term is over, they want the sport to collapse, then you have failed. For me, I want it to continue. That is the reason even today the SLTA, the ATF (Asian Tennis Federation) and the ITF (International Tennis Federation) I can do anything, talk to them and get various things done. You have to make everybody happy, give a fair chance to everyone, no biasness.”

Subramaniam said that his target in the next four years of his tenure is to first start qualifying for the Olympics on merit and to start winning medals.

“This time at the Tokyo Olympics we had wild card entries. I don’t think there will be wild cards at the next Olympic Games. That luck won’t be there. So, we have to qualify on merit for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, 2026 Youth Olympics in Senegal, and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles,” said Subramaniam.

“The Olympics is a cycle of 8 to 12 years. To produce an Olympian, it takes about 8 years, to produce a winner it takes about 12 years. You’ve got to start very young, which is why we have identified about 20 in the age groups of 12-14 who are already being sponsored by NOCSL. It’s not only sponsorship and money, you have to make sure they have the proper protein, don’t get injured and guide them to proper training. All that is being done.”

“This is the first time that in any part of the island if any one of our athletes gets injured they have access to the doctors. We have a medical team that has 24 doctors island wide attached to NOCSL. It’s not a one-man show or one federation, the whole country has to be behind us to win. I have put all that in place.”

“Today, it is not training and diet which contribute but it is the science. It is scientifically done. When an athlete is running, they have attached so many gadgets onto their muscles to check which muscle is working well and which muscle is weak. Then they train those muscles. It’s an amazing thing. We are far away from that, but at least we have to send our players to get trained which we have done. Last year we had some training in Qatar, then to Turkey. A lot has been done,” Subramaniam disclosed.