The Olympic Sports Centre (Photo | AFP)
The Olympic Sports Centre (Photo | AFP)

India’s Olympic sports mired in scandals

With around six weeks left for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, there is no clue who would be chalking out the final list of athletes and officials for the Games.

The worst’ will not be an exaggeration while describing the phase Indian sports (Olympic sports, of course) is going through at the moment. It has plunged into one of those abysses where clawing back will take a humongous effort. It is mired in scandals, court cases, suspensions, harassment charges and allegations of bias in team selections.

The past week or so had been tumultuous, to say the least. The cycling team that was training in Slovenia was called back after a female cyclist levelled charges of sexual harassment against its chief national coach. One of the members of the women’s sailing team training in Germany had said her coach was making her “uncomfortable”. The Yachting Association of India conducted an enquiry and submitted the report to Sports Authority of India (SAI) to whom the sailor had addressed her grievances. The cycling national coach was dismissed after SAI found him guilty.

Just a couple of days before these two unsavoury allegations, the Delhi HC had asked the sports ministry to suspend and stop funding those National Sports Federations for non-compliance of the sports code. According to petitioner and senior advocate, Rahul Mehra, all except one or two NSFs don’t comply with sports code. On June 10, the Delhi HC heard a case involving table tennis players who alleged discrepancies in the selection process of the 2022 Commonwealth Games team. One of the players, Diya Chitale, was included after the Table Tennis Federation of India, run by a court-appointed Committee of Administrators, made a U-turn. The CoA itself was under intense scrutiny.

With around six weeks left for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, there is no clue who would be chalking out the final list of athletes and officials for the Games. With NSFs suspended (by ministry and not international federations), there is a lack of clarity as to how the government would clear the officials accompanying the teams. Players should not be affected but there is a lack of clarity. The last date of submission of athletes’ names is in a few days. The clock is ticking but one wonders if anybody is even listening to it right now.

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The New Indian Express
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