It was with real pleasure that I heard last week that one of my favourite sportspeople, Kirsty Gilmour, is to receive what could be a career, if not quite life changing some of money after allowing her name to be put forward in the player auction for the Indian Badminton League.
A dynamic version of the sport – badminton version of the IPL Cricket League which transformed the earning power of cricketers across the globe and has spawned copycat competitions in Australia, the West Indies and elsewhere – it is tapping into what is massive appeal in Asia, something Kirsty previously experienced three years ago when, along with fellow Commonwealth Games medallists Imogen Bankier and Bob Blair, she was invited to take part in the big money Axiata Cup as part of a European All Stars team.
In Scotland, as the leading player in the national badminton programme which largely generates its funding from government agencies on the basis of aiming to win medals, Gilmour is principally reliant upon what amounts to grant aid in order to be a full-time professional player, such prize money as she can win and sponsorship that she has managed to generate through her own efforts, serving as something of a bonus.
The nature of competitive badminton is that the vast majority of tournaments require considerable travel for a Scottish-based player and at the top level, playing in Super Series events, the standard is such that it in terms of cost-effectiveness it can be a treacherous business, since a string of first round exits can mean a considerable net loss.
That, though, is what professional sport is all about, the risk and reward of backing your own talent and attitude to earn a living through competitive success and capitalisation on profile.
It has been interesting recently to see that as Scotland’s most successful sportsman in competitive and fiscal terms, Andy Murray has recognised that there is a need to provide additional help to those seeking to do that in setting up his support service 77 Sports Management. It will be fascinating to see how the way that company operates, as it gets into its stride, works in harness with the current set-up for the vast majority of sports, where even potential Olympic and Commonwealth medallists, are effectively living on subsidies.
That has something to do with the nature of global sports, but also the commercial environment in Scotland in which the lack of publicity afforded to anything other than football and Celtic and Rangers in particular, makes it exceedingly difficult for even those who are well disposed towards other sports to see any value in offering sponsorship to players.
The transition from junior ranks to the hard world of full-time professional sport consequently requires considerable assistance, but as increasing pressure comes onto the public purse, we have to ask ourselves whether competitors in any discipline can genuinely consider themselves to be professional sportspeople if they cannot generate a living from their efforts.
It is not entirely down to them, because the linkage between medal success and the amount of money allocated to sports by either UK Sport or sportscotland makes it almost inevitable that British or Scottish governing bodies want to have control of their own destiny and so seek to keep the very best performers under their control.
That allows their preparation for competition to be managed, but also restricts opportunities to expose themselves to the reality of professional sport, which involves going out, Andy Murray-style, into an environment where the riches to be won, must be set alongside significant risks.
It would be wrong to say that elite sportspeople should be abandoned by the national sports agencies and governing bodies once they move out of the junior ranks, but finding more creative ways of backing those brave enough to take the risk of going where they have to in order to be able to survive without that state support as early as possible would also have the added benefit of freeing up extra money for governing bodies to engage in what I have always believed should be their main job of getting people involved in sport.
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