India lose Asian archery event, thanks to AAI

New Delhi: The refusal of the de-recognised Archery Association of India (AAI) to adhere to the Government’s Sports Code has led to India losing the hosting rights of the prestigious Asia Cup tournament, which was scheduled to be held in the capital from January 31 to February 5.

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 18

The refusal of the de-recognised Archery Association of India (AAI) to adhere to the Government’s Sports Code has led to India losing the hosting rights of the prestigious Asia Cup tournament, which was scheduled to be held in the capital from January 31 to February 5. This isn’t the first time AAI’s stubbornness has resulted in India losing the hosting rights of an international event. In 2014, AAI, then led by veteran sports administrator Vijay Kumar Malhotra, had conceded the hosting rights of the Asia Cup.

AAI’s secretary general Anil Kamineni has informed the Asian Archery Federation (AAF) about the decision to give up the hosting rights. Archery’s power-house South Korea, China, Japan, Chinese Taipei and Iran, among others, were scheduled to participate in the nearly week-long tournament and a few participating nations had already sent in their entries. The last date for sending the entries was January 20 and the archers were expected to start arriving by next week.

AAI could have conducted the tournament with the government’s support had it implemented the Sports Code and conducted elections. When AAI had first approached the Sports Ministry for funds for the tournament, the Ministry told the body to accept the Sports Code and get its recognition back. For the record, AAI is the only sports federation in the country which hasn’t accepted the Sports Code till date. The All India Tennis Association, the other defiant sports federation, fell in line by holding elections a few weeks back.

In a last-ditch effort, AAI wrote an urgent letter to the Ministry requesting it to grant permission to host the tournament. In the letter, AAI said it would amend the constitution by mid-February and hold the elections by March 31. Not impressed, the Ministry ignored the letter and refused to meet the AAI officials. Finally, sensing that the Ministry was in no mood to entertain, AAI decided to shelve its plans to host the tournament and informed AAF accordingly.

Interestingly, AAI had held an Executive Committee meeting in February 2016 to form a consensus to implement the Sports Code but nothing happened after that. Then, on December 22, 2016, AAI held another meeting and decided to amend its constitution after hosting the tournament. These overtures, however, failed to convince the Ministry about the federation’s seriousness to implement the Sports Code.