ABID KHAN
Srinagar, Feb 4: The J&K Sports Council has come under severe criticism for promoting 'inconsequential' sports bodies at the cost of valid ones which, according to the sports fraternity, could lead to the obliteration of some of the most important sports disciplines in the valley.Out of ten sports bodies, the Council marked three sports disciplines, Rugby, Baseball and Rifle Shooting, leaving aside, Rowing, Spak-Takraw, Shooting Ball, Motor Sports, Tri-Athlon, Bridge and Malkhamb, in its recently-held sub-committee meeting at Jammu. The Council had kept the activities of the concerned bodies under constant check for three years. Though the statuesque of the seven left-out bodies has remained unchanged and their activities would be monitored afresh, the Sports Council has paved way for the recognition of the ‘favoured’ three. Ironically, Rifle Shooting is a lesser-known sport in the state and it has baffled many a sports bodies’ officials as to how its case has received undue attention. Surprised at the exclusion of the J&K Rowing Association, general secretary, Wasim Raja, said that ‘the Council was playing a tool in the hands of its senior officials indulged in making a mint.’ “Rowing is the only sport that gave the state the Arjun award,” he said. “I am at a cross to understand why our Association has been ignored.”He accused the senior officials of the Council of running the ‘favoured’ sports bodies. “The Council secretary, P S Gill, is running the Rifle Association,” he said. “This is the reason, the Rifle Association was favoured.”He said the Council gave a handsome grant to the recognised bodies annually which is why the Council officials had floated their own associations. “The joint secretary of the Council, Abdul Rauf, is close to Rugby and Baseball Associations,” he said. “If the officials at the helm would take recourse to nepotism, the future of sports in the state is quite dark.”He said Rowing was an Olympic sport and had tremendous potential in the state. “The state, in spite of the next-to-nothing infrastructure, secured 6th place in the 33rd National Games held in Guwahatti, Assam in 2007,” he said. “Moreover, it comes under the ambit of SRO 349 wherein a medal-winning player is entitled to a government job.”He said only eight teams across India were qualified to take part at the national level. “Our team is due to participate in the 34th National Games due to be held in June this year at Jharkhand.”He said the sport had given the state a respectable name in the country. “The only Arjun Awardee of the state is Major General, Muhammad Amin Naik, of Tral who won the medal at the Asian Games in 1982,” he said. “He has also won over half a dozen medals at different international events and over 30 medals at the national level.”He said the Rowing Association was affiliated with the Human Resource Development ministry, recognised body, the Rowing Federation of India. “We make a strong case for the recognition,” he said while demanding CM’s intervention in setting the Council matters right.He said Rifle Shooting was an ‘insignificant’ sport in the state. “It is a high-profile sport and out of reach for the normal folks,” he said. “No competition has been held in the sport ever.”Questioning the wisdom of preferring Rugby and Baseball to Rowing, Raja said both sports were conspicuously invisible from the state scene. “The state owing to numerous water bodies can produce sportspersons in bulk,” he said. “Contrastingly Rugby and Baseball is being played in a few districts in the state.”He said despite winning medals, the Rowing suffered from the lack of infrastructure here. “Not a single rowing boat is available to us,” he said. “We organise our coaching at Taran Taran in Punjab at our own cost and the Council ‘rewarded’ by sideling us blatantly.”
published in ngreater kashmir on Febuary 5: link: http://greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=5_2_2009&ItemID=11&cat=4
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