Sania got Khel Ratna on popular demand, feels Advani

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 1

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards’ selection committee has come under severe criticism from 13-time world billiards and snooker champion Pankaj Advani. The cueist feels tennis ace Sania Mirza was conferred with the country’s highest sporting honour on popular demand and that the selection panel possibly got “swayed” by the hype created around her achievements.

Sania was conferred the Khel Ratna on August 29 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan despite a Karnataka High Court notice on the petition filed by Paralympian HN Girisha, who challenged the committee’s decision to recommend Sania’s name for the honour. In his plea, Girisha argued that he had collected 90 points (70 for London Paralympics silver medal and 20 for Incheon Asian Games bronze) during the award computation period from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2014, while Sania’s WTA titles and Wimbledon doubles victory do not count as per the government’s performance-based points system.

Also, it was not Sania but the Sports Ministry which had forwarded her application for the Khel Ratna to the selection committee after she won the Wimbledon doubles title with Martina Hingis.

The 12-member committee was headed by retired chief justice of the Kerala High Court V K Bali. The committee, among others, also had three senior journalists.

“When we talk about sports in India, we get carried away by the hype generated around a sport. You cannot be swayed by the popularity of a particular sport or a sportsperson. There are lot many sports which are not that popular and, because of that reason, a more popular sportsperson gets the bigger award,” Advani said on the sidelines of a function organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

“I, so far, believed that there was less weightage for team events. And then, you have Sania getting the Khel Ratna for being the doubles World No.1. If I talk about the cue sports, our multiple-times national champion and 2013 World Championship gold medallist Vidya Pillai was not even considered for the Arjuna Award. Why is there discrimination when it comes to selecting people for awards or making policies? Let the policies be inclusive for every sport in India. When I got the Khel Ratna and Arjuna, the point system was extremely fair. But today, I can’t put my hand on the heart and say that the entire system is transparent. We hear cases of lobbying, favouritism and people using their influence,” he added.

The 30-year-old Bangalore-based cueist, who recently defended his World 6-Red snooker title in Pakistan, criticised the Ministry and the awards committee for following a “mechanical approach” while selecting athletes for the Khel Ratna and Arjuna.

“If the government is framing policies and actually implementing them, it cannot be based on what you do once in four years. I am talking about Olympics, Asian Games and CWG. Through its policies, the government is actually trying to tell us that if you perform once in four years, it’s great. You don’t need to perform well every year. If you need world champions, then you need to create a proper structure or make policies to consistently produce world beaters years after years. There has to be a change in the selection policies of these awards,” Advani said.

“Also, when these selection committees are formed, they have to keep in mind that the people who are appointed in the committee should not be part of any sports organisation, national federation or a body that funds top-level sportspersons. You can’t have people who have conflict of interest. You need to have a lot of former sportspersons, but these sportspersons can also be part of sports organisations. It’s a vicious circle. So you need to get people who are extremely fair and who do not have vested interests,” he added.

Former Sports Minister Ajay Maken concurred that sports awards are losing its sheen because of the controversies surrounding it. “In order to see that such controversies do not happen, the chairperson and the members of these awards committees should be non-partisan people.”