In what might come as a major blow to various sports teams on campus, the institute has decided to slash the Sports Budget to 9 lakhs this year – a sharp drop from the 17.5 Lakhs that were allocated for the previous academic year.

The Sports Budget usually covers four major expenses for sports teams: outstation competitions, inventory, coaches for BOSM, and half the amount for team kits (the other half of which is paid for by players themselves). In addition to this, other minor overheads are incurred while organizing intra-BITS events such as BITS Run. In order to ensure timely arrival for BOSM, the inventory for teams is usually ordered in the previous semester, but the Institute declares the amount allotted for sports only at the beginning of the new academic year.

For the past couple of years, the Sports Budget has witnessed a steady rise – the Institute allotted around 14 lakhs for the academic year of 2014-15, around 15 lakhs for 2015-16, and 17.5 lakhs for 2016-17. Last year, expenses overshot the allotted amount by about 4.5 lakhs; the additional funds were acquired on an urgent basis from the Director’s Research Fund and other sources. To account for future spikes in overall expenses, the Sports Council decided to reduce the amount spent on inventory from 11.5 lakhs to 8.5 lakhs while placing the order last semester.

The Sports Secretary, Jayshil Joshi, had submitted a requisition for a tentative budget to the institute last semester, using the earlier years’ budgets as estimates. An unsettling fact about the Sports Budget is that the Sports Council does not sit in with the institute for budget meets. In the third week of August, the Sports Council was told that money needed to be spent in other areas, and as a result, the Sports Budget allotted by the institute for 2017-18 would be only 9 lakhs. Subsequent talks with the institute were unsuccessful in obtaining more funds.

While the institute was clear that it didn’t want BOSM to be affected, no guarantee was given about covering any additional expenses that would be incurred. “They’ve asked us to cut down on costs as much as possible and rethink our expenditure. They’ve told us that they’ll try arranging money from other sources if our requests for additional expenses are legitimate,” said Jayshil.

There is now real tension among sports teams about how this is going to affect them. The Sports Council itself is uncertain on who is going to bear the additional expenses if the institute refuses to sign off on them. Coaches for the teams have already arrived on campus, and will need to be paid once BOSM is over. If issues with payment come up, future editions of BOSM might be impacted. The order for kits has also been placed, and players will be forced to pay for them completely if the institute refuses to do so. Yet another setback that might arise from this will be the cancellation of outstation competitions for sports teams – external participation in at least one competition is a right guaranteed in the Sports Constitution. Alternatively, teams will have to bear the entire cost of going outside Pilani by themselves if they wish to do so.

The Sports Secretary is firmly against the idea of charging students for sports facilities; according to him, these are basic amenities that should be provided to students. With the increased intake, the number of people availing these facilities has also gone up. He laments, “The Institute has invested heavily to renovate the existing sports facilities, but are not enabling students to use them to the fullest.”