Organisers overrule 3 states, confirm pending entries

Tribune News Service

Vinayak Padmadeo

Ahmedabad, September 29

The decision of the Games Technical Conduct Committee (GTCC) of the National Games to overrule the state associations in the matter of the entries for the event points to a lack of coordination between the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), National Sports Federations (NSFs) and State Olympic Associations (SOA).

Rival factions in states, court cases, favouritism and interference from influential officials in the entry process have left many officials miffed.

At its meeting on September 22, the GTCC headed by Sudhanshu Mittal overruled the state bodies and sided with the NSFs to allow pending entries that were stopped by three state bodies for various reasons.

The longest list of pending entries was from Punjab, in netball, roller sports, shooting, soft tennis, softball and volleyball. The other pending entries were in basketball and kabaddi from Haryana, and kho kho from Karnataka.

“In the GTCC meeting on 22nd September 2022, it was unanimously decided that the pending entries be confirmed in liaison with the respective National Sports Federations and their State Sport Sports Associations. This was decided considering the best interest of the athletes,” GTCC stated after the meeting.

As per the new rules, the top 15 ranked athletes get a direct entry to the event, while the top eight teams get automatic berths.

Court cases, rival factions

The Haryana Olympic Association’s chef de mission here, Bikramjeet Singh, said that the entries were withheld due pending court cases. “We had no role in this as there were two factions. The IOA overruled us and we are fine with it,” he said.

Punjab Olympic Association’s secretary general Raja Sidhu said there were several reasons to stop the entries. “In netball, there are two factions and the matter is sub judice so we stayed out of it. We have no record of the affiliated bodies in roller sports and whether they held trials to select the team,” Sidhu said.

“In shooting, we only sent three entries in the skeet competition. Of the top-15, we had 10 shooters in this discipline, but we cannot afford to send so many entries. I don’t know what soft tennis is. Softball is not an affiliated unit. Volleyball had two factions, which was the handiwork of the Volleyball Federation of India. Now tell me where we have erred?” he added.

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