CHENNAI: Unhappy with their exclusion, five wrestlers, who were cleared by the Sports Authority of India at no-cost to government and the Wrestling Federation of India for the U-23 World Championships, have moved the Delhi High Court.
Hearing their plea on Friday, the court issued notice to the SAI, WFI and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The matter is listed for hearing on January 28, 2022. Interestingly, the World Championships is scheduled in Belgrade, Serbia from November 1 to 7.
The federation had recommended 45 names including 30 wrestlers (10 each in men's freestyle, Greco-Roman and women's wrestling), who had won a gold medal each in the U-23 nationals held in September, for the event to the SAI.
However, SAI had approved only seven of them and asked the WFI to recommend 17 more names who will be sent on government cost leaving out six including a woman wrestler. Three of the excluded male wrestlers compete in freestyle while the remaining two are Greco-Roman grapplers.
Apart from wrestlers, the SAI had also excluded three coaches. However, in the coaches' case, some of them were not training wrestlers. "The petition challenged the division made in the team as this is for the first time such practice has been adopted while sending a wrestling contingent. This move could also affect the morale of the team. All wrestlers should have been sent on government cost. All these five wrestlers will compete in the tournament. The WFI is hopeful the government will eventually decide to bear their expenses as well," WFI's counsel Rakesh Kumar Singh told The New Indian Express.
This is not the first time SAI had cleared players at no cost to the government. It had been done for minor tournaments, especially those not part of the Annual Calendar for Training and Competition (ACTC). The decision brought the SAI and WFI at loggerheads with federation's president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, shooting a letter to the sports minister.
The federation also confirmed that it will not let any wrestlers miss the event and decided to send them to Belgrade seeking financial support from its sponsors. While clearing the entire squad of 45 members a few days back, the SAI has indicated that it would bear the cost of 36 members, including 24 wrestlers, six coaches, three physiotherapists and as many referees.
SAI had pointed out that the decision to clear 24 wrestlers on cost to the government was based on an assessment of their performance in the domestic and international events in the last three years. It also suggested the WFI to include coaches from the academies producing a larger number of members of the contingent.
During the hearing, the WFI counsel supported the case of the petitioners submitting that in the past, all the names recommended by the federation have been uniformly accepted for grant of full assistance by the government. The counsels of the respondents were given four weeks to file counter-affidavits on their requests.