SPORTS
A day after Leander Paes and Sania Mirza pulled out of the upcoming Incheon Asian Games citing circuit rating points, it has been learnt that the players' parents could be excluded from the list of officials travelling to South Korea.
After the players made the announcement, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) wasted no time in recommending that names of Leander's father Vece Paes and Sania's mother Nasima Mirza be excluded from the list released two days back by the sports ministry.
Vaes is a veteran sports medicine specialist and has been accompanying various Indian teams, from tennis to cricket, to international tournaments, while Nasima has been touring with tennis teams as manager, including the 2012 London Olympics.
These two high-flyers managed to keep their place in the final list released by the sports ministry on Tuesday, despite the fact that many top officials, coaches and managers were axed citing different reasons.
"Both these names are in the list for obvious reasons," said a senior ministry official on Thursday, adding: "If playing for money and ranking points is more important for these most experienced players than playing for the nation, then what kind of signal are you sending to the upcoming players?"
The sports ministry is awaiting the return of SAI director general Jiji Thomson from Assam before making their final decision public. However, dna has learnt that AITA's explanation to allow Leander, Rohan Bopanna and Sania to skip these premier Games, has not gone down well with both ministry and SAI.
"If a player like Leander says that he is skipping Asian Games in order to earn his bread and butter from playing on circuit, there cannot any justification to this decision. How can you expect then that we should show any leniency to his father or Sania's mother, who are only in the team because of them?" Asked a senior ministry official.
dna has learnt that AITA, too, is likely to forward its recommendations to the ministry regarding this issue and, the final decision would be reached any time.
"There is no need now to take six officials to Korea since our top three players have withdrawn," an AITA official told dna.
IOA's plea
Meanwhile, IOA has also got in touch with the sports ministry in order to include a few more officials in the final Incheon list. IOA has reasoned that without the services of some key officials, teams may face problems during the September 19 to October 4 Asian Games.
Another decision of the ministry to send teams only five days prior to their competition has put some federations in a fix.
IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta has apprised ministry's top officials regarding this. He said that by axing manager's names of 25 out of 28 disciplines, the teams may face serious logistical problems. Also, teams like wrestling, boxing and weightlifting needed to be there at least a week before the actual competition because for them the real issue is of reducing their weight a day before their event.
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