Agencies

The Sports Ministry on Saturday announced its decision to do away with the Rs 2 lakh cap on the salary given to Indian coaches training elite athletes in a bid to encourage them to produce better results and attract former players to become high-performance trainers.

The announcement came after the ministry's decision on Thursday to extend the contracts of all foreign coaches till September 30 next year and to make all future hiring both Indian and foreign for a four-year cycle in sync with the Olympics to ensure continuity.

"Several Indian coaches are showing very good results and need to be rewarded for their hard work. The government is also keen to attract the best coaching talent from across the country to train elite athletes and we do not want the cap on compensation to be a deterent for good coaches to join," Sports Minister.