CHENNAI: In what might be a major setback to senior sportspersons in the State, the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) has removed several major events including football, volleyball, basketball from the Chief Minister’s Trophy.
Nearly 10 athletic events including long jump, high jump and triple jump will also not be a part of the state-level event organised to identify sporting talent in Tamil Nadu.
The annual event considered to be richest in the annals of Indian athletics has been a major boost to the athletic community in the State for the last three years. The unprecedented prize money awarded to the winners at each stage helped the upcoming sporting talent, particularly those from the poorer section of the society.
This year, the Department of Youth Welfare and Sports Development had set up a committee to introduce certain modifications in the events. This committee had decided to replace several existing events with new sporting activities. The government has approved it and necessary orders were passed recently.
Highly placed sources in SDAT said that popular games like football, volleyball, basketball will be replaced with lesser-known events like taekwondo and fencing. For the first time, a non-olympic events including Wushu will also be a part of the state-level championship.
Out of the 28 recognised disciplines in athletics, several jumping events, 200-metre sprint and 110-metre hurdles have been kept out of the box this year.
While government sources hinted at this as a cost-cutting initiative, SDAT officials rejected it. “The idea is to bring fresh talent into the limelight. Participants of the left out events have enjoyed success to a certain extent. This decision was made based on repeated requests from representatives of other not-so-popular sporting events,” said a senior SDAT official. However, sportspersons across disciplines have condemned the move.
S Aruchamy, senior vice-chairman of Tamil Nadu Volleyball Association, said, “If the SDAT wants to promote new events, there was no harm in including them in the list. What was the necessity to exclude games in which the State has performed relatively well in the recent past ? “
He added that even a year’s gap will blunt the progress made in the last 15 years and eventually will bring down the State’s representation in the national team.
The maximum age limit to participate in this year’s event has also been brought down from 25 to 21 putting a grinding halt to college students’ hopes.