new delhi resume noncontact sports like cricket and badminton behind closed doors in few locations and with limited manpower the ficci suggested on wednesday as the indian sports sector looks to get the wheels back in motion amid the covid19 pandemicthe novel coronavirus which has so far killed more than 2400 people and infected over 70000 in the country has disrupted the sports calender and also impacted other industries such as event management food beverages hotels and tourismthe unprecedented health crisis forced an indefinite shutdown of all sports activities both contact and noncontactthe ficci federation of indian chambers of commerce industry said noncontact sports can resume first by maintaining social distancing normsresumption of noncontact live sporting events like cricket tennis badminton tabletennis etc with athletes and staff practicing social distancing guidelines specified by government and who it said in a releasethese events should be restricted to a very few locations with lower manpower and may be played in sanitised empty stadia thereby minimising travel and minimising congregation of fanson resumption of outdoor training for indias top athletes the ficci said only necessary onground training for elite athletes in limited number of sai centres should begin on staggered basis while following the guidelines of social distancing and provision of regular corona testing for athletesthe ficci also came out with other recommendations such as announcing compensation package for contractual staff insuring future events and provision of contract extensiona compensation package for contractual staff who are rendered jobless during the inactivity period especially for ground staff instadia workers etc whose source of livelihood has been adversely affected it saidinsurance companies to insure future events and activities against covid19 and force majeure to be regarded in current situation which may grant relief to a party from liability for failure to meet its obligations due to a scenario beyond control as the covid19 situation is somewhat uniquethe ficci added that effective planning for businesses will be critical and should involve the formation of a multidisciplinary crisis management team that should be prepared to address potential concerns and make recommendationsit also recommended moratorium of payback on loans slashing of gst rates and also suggested that defaulters in sports business should not be qualified as non performing assets npasmoratorium of payback on loans and interest for a period of 9 to 12 months and clearance of all dues to companies who have executed orders for central or state government or psus ficci saidgst rates should be slashed considering the road to recovery to be long and challenging while gst and other tax refunds should be cleared at the earliestit is evident that the sports sector will suffer during this period due to defaults in payment of interests letter of credit instalments etc such defaults and loss suffered by the businesses should not result in these entities being qualified as npasit also recommended setting up of a fund to help sports startupssetup a fund via sports accelerators to help startups in sports and fitness sector