These days there is a fierce fight between the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and sports federations, due to which something happened this time which had never happened in the history of Indian sports.
The Sports Ministry refused to accept the recommendations of the committee that was formed for sports awards. Some of these players have gone to court, while some are busy seeking time from the Director General of SAI and the union Sports minister, but they are not being given time.
This is the first time that players for the recently concluded World Under 23 Wrestling Championship in Serbia have entered the championship without a camp. Similarly, only the 15 days camp was organised for the World Championships held in Oslo, Norway, earlier the camp was organised nearly one-and-a-half month and it used to be about ten months camp in a year. Players says that Sai has become a puppet of the Sports Ministry.
SAI wants to promote only Khelo India and NGOE scheme, while the number of players in it is far less than expected. Not only this, in the past, SAI had refused to send six players and three coaches of three styles of wrestling selected for the World Under 23 Championship at their own expense. As a result, the expenses of these nine (6 players, 3 coaches) persons had to be bear by the Federation itself. DG SAI has refused to accept several recommendations of the Committee of National Sports Awards headed by retired Supreme Court judge Mukundakam Sharma, while three-time Paralympic medalist Devendra Jhajharia, former world champion Sarita Devi in boxing, former international shooter Anjali Bhagwat, former Test player Venkatesh Prasad, former Indian women’s cricket team captain Anjum Chopra and a most senior journalists like Vijay Lokpally and Vikrant Gupta are included in this committee.
The question arises whether it is not an insult to this committee which did justice to the forgotten stalwarts like Sajjan Singh (wrestling), Devender Singh Garcha and Sarpan Singh (hockey) and Tapan Panigrahi (swimming) in the mainstream. The question is, if there is a rift between the SAI and the federations over the camps, why should it affect the players.
It is true that India got a medal in Olympic hockey after 41 years. To be honoured to the whole team is welcome. On the other hand, Sujit Maan, whose name was deleted after recommended for the Dronacharya Award, says that till today the names recommended by the committee have never been cut, but our names were cut after making headlines in the newspaper for a week, which is very unfortunate.
It is worth noting that in the days when Sujit was the coach of the national team, Bajrang won gold in the Asian Games in 2018 and Asian Championship in 2017. Yogeshwar Dutt, Amit Dahiya, Amit Dhankar and Sushil won gold medals in Asian Games, Asian Championship and Commonwealth Games during his tenure. The team title of freestyle in the 2013 Asian Championship was also achieved during his tenure. From Bajrang Punia to Ravi Dahiya and the entire sports fraternity is protesting that at least players and coaches should not be humiliated like this.