The Sports Ministry on Saturday removed the Rs 2 lakh cap on the salary given to Indian coaches for training elite athletes in a bid to encourage them to produce better results. The move is also aimed at attracting former players to become high-performance trainers. The announcement came after the ministry's decision to extend the contracts of all foreign coaches till September 30 next year.

"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 deterrent for good coaches to join," Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said in a release. The ministry release said the increased remuneration and longer contract period "is to attract ex-elite athletes into the high-performance sporting ecosystem, and to use their experience and skill to train athletes bound for major international competitions, including the Olympics".