CHENNAI: On Tuesday, India’s traditional boat-racing team booked their tickets to the Asian Games. No, they did not better a qualifying mark or win a tournament. They won a court case. And they were far from being the only ones trying to get a judge to select them for Jakarta.
Of course, India’s preparations for every major sporting event will have a healthy dose of controversies and legal tangles but the extent of the shadow that they have cast over the upcoming Asian Games is perhaps unprecedented. Almost half of the 37 disciplines that India will contest have been engulfed in turmoil.
Many athletes have sought legal action, some have threatened it while others have expressed their displeasure in public. The IOA courted controversy by publishing an initial list omitting sports like football, and then were forced to revise and re-revise it even as judges issued rulings.
Shady dealings in disciplines like equestrian too came to light. The highest profile of these controversies has been the case of sailors Varsha Gautham and Shweta Shervegar who approached the Delhi High Court over selection trials in the 49er FX category.
The Yachting Association of India had initially proposed the names of Ekta Yadav and Shaila Charls who had finished first in the trials held in Chennai. But YAI had initially said that the Asian Championships where Varsha and Shweta had performed better were the trials, prompting the latter duo to go to court. The Delhi HC had sided with the petitioners asking YAI to hold fresh trials.
The latest update was that YAI were going to cite non-availability of venues and equipment as reasons behind not holding trials. Equestrian too was plagued by selection issues with Shruti Vora, who participated in the 2014 Asian Games, writing to IOA president Narinder Batra, complaining about discrepancies in the way the team was picked. Badminton stars Aparna Balan and Vaishnavi Jakka Reddy moved court against their respective non-selections, alleging that they had been unfairly pushed aside in favour of national coach Pullela Gopichand’s daughter Gayatri.
Also taking legal help were athletes Prachi Choudhary and Chhavi Sharawat, who were omitted from the women’s 4x400m relay team.
Taekwondo, too, saw major drama with six athletes moving court regarding their participation. In the end, it is looking like no one will be making the trip to Indonesia. Unlike all these attempts, the handball team actually managed to wriggle into the Asian Games contingent via a court order. They had been absent from IOA’s list before the Allahabad High Court ruled in their favour. To accommodate them, IOA pushed out 20 pencak silat athletes who are now threatening to go to court.
In the little-known sport of sambo, the IOA scratched five names after realising that they were actually relatives of federation officials. As of now, only one athlete will represent India.
The ones to benefit from their culling were the sport climbers who were previously nowhere on the list. Even more hilarious is the case of the four triathletes who had been included in the initial list, only for the squad to be dropped entirely.
The reason?
The IOA thought their relay event was being held for the first time in Asian Games history — information a simple Google search would have verified. Though it is hard to remember the last time courts influenced such a significant per cent of an Indian contingent, sports secretary Rahul Bhatnagar maintains that things are much better this time.
“How can you stop them? Courts are always there to ensure that injustice is not done to anyone,” he said. “If somebody feels that that justice hasn’t been done to him/her, they have every right to go to court. But the numbers aren’t much. Because the system is quite transparent, people are by and large satisfied (by the overall process). On our insistence, federations have put in place transparent procedures for selection guidelines and they have publicised it well in advance.”
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com