WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said that the matter is sensitive and he cannot take a decision on his own.
The Wrestling Federation of India on Friday put the onus of holding a selection trial to choose between Sushil Kumar and Narsingh Pancham Yadav for this year's Olympic Games on the Government, saying the WFI alone cannot decide on the "sensitive matter".
WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said the Federation would wait for the Government to give direction regarding holding the trial in the contentious 74kg freestyle category.
"Since Sushil has written to the Sports Ministry, the matter is not in WFI's hands. So we will wait for the Government's direction on how to go about the trial issue," the WFI chief told PTI.
"This is very sensitive matter and I cannot decide alone. As and when we get any instructions from the Government, we will decide. In any case, the WFI will refer the matter to the selection committee, which would include an Olympian, an Arjuna awardee, chief coach, general secretary among others.
And then the matter would be decided by the committee. It is not right for me to speculate anything now. There is a procedure that has to be followed," he added.
Asked about his personal opinion on who between Sushil and Narsingh should go to Rio, Singh said: "In India, it has been a practice to send that wrestler to the Olympics who has won a quota place. Although a quota belongs to the country, it has been a practice to send the winner who has secured the quota."
Citing the example of the 2004 Olympics, Singh said Kirpa Shankar had approached the court against Yogeshwar Dutt before the Games but his appeal was ruled down. "Before the 2004 Olympics, Kripa Shankar had approached the court to have trials with Yogeshwar. But the Court had ruled that the wrestler who had bagged the quota place should go to the Olympics," he recalled.
Singh admitted that the current scenario is an extremely tricky situation, considering that Sushil has taken Indian wrestling to where it is today and Narsingh is the only Indian wrestler to have bagged an Olympic quota with a medal at the World Championship.
"Narsingh had not only won the Olympic quota with a bronze medal at the World championship but has been doing consistently well in 74kg. While Sushil's contributions cannot be ignored. He has taken Indian wrestling to a different level. But one has to see that his Olympics medals came in 66kg division. So, it would be unfair to take any hasty decision. Both their achievements deserve to be respected and taken into consideration," he said.
The WFI is likely to meet next week to break the deadlock, which is threatening to snowball into a massive furore.
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