The Khelo India University Games was organized at Jain Global University, Bengaluru from 24th April to 3rd May 2022. More than Rs 55 crore was spent on these games. Shouldn’t an attempt have been made to know how interested the players were to participate in these games? Fewer players took part than what was expected. The result of this apathy was that walk-overs were seen in many games.
It was decided that the top eight players in the University Championship of the respective sport would be given a place in it. But in most of the events, even total of eight competitors could not participate. As a result, competitions were organised in a Nordic round for them in some of the individual events.
In such events, instead of two, only one bronze medal was awarded. Its disadvantage was that the number of matches or bouts increased. In events where winning three or four bouts leads to a gold medal, the player had to compete in six bouts in a seven players competition. If a wrestler fights six matches in a day, he is bound to get exhausted.
It was also seen that many players got injured during the event and did not enter the competition and in many games, a series of walkovers started one after the other. In weightlifting and judo events, there were only five competitors in some weight categories. Despite qualifying in Khelo India, the players are more interested to participate in international events and they are practicing at the national camps. The arrangement was to protect sports from doping, but there is also news of two girls running away to avoid doping in one sport. This time the responsibility of providing technical staff was given to the respective sports federation, where efforts were made to promote local referees.
This move weakened the technical side of these games. In boxing, many decisions were shocking. A score of 3-2 or 4-1 in many decisions indicates a lack of coordination among technical officials. In wrestling, there was also a significant reduction in the movement of the referee during the bout. It is well-known fact that if two wrestlers twist their fingers in the opposite direction, then the referee will give a caution point to the concerned wrestler in an international event but here such a sensitive matter was ignored.
The large use of volunteers is welcome in the Games, but it was seen that they were not briefed properly, as a result volunteers were not utilised properly at many venues despite having a large number of volunteers. Covid protocols could not be followed and no strictness could be seen in this direction.
The moving of these games from the clutches of the private broadcaster to the national broadcaster DD is a welcome move and the entire team had put forth their best effort with diligence.
The DD team has proved that they are no less than anyone in their professionalism. In the end, it is enough that the government should also assess the infrastructural facilities in more than 150 universities participating in these sports, because it has been seen that many universities do not even have a basic infrastructure for all these sports.
