Reports: Sports Ministry grants greater autonomy to National Sports Federations than IOA

Now in a letter to the IOA president, the ministry stated that specific relaxation of norms, purely on merit-basis, to allow sending of teams or athletes in the larger interest of sports and sportspersons. The move was made because some deserving sportspersons were unable to make the cut for Team India due to the stringent guidelines, lesser exposure to tournaments. Therefore the ministry has advised the IOA that it may in consultation with respective sports federations reassess the decision taken by them, regarding sports discipline which were not eligible for participation in the Asian Games but could be considered for participation in light of the fact that individual athlete or team have been performing consistently well in the last six months, but could not qualify due to lack of enough exposure or participation in ranking events and hence has a strong possibility of either winning a medal in the Asian Games 2018 or finishing in the top four.

In recent days, there has been controversy in the selection of Indian teams in several disciplines. Earlier, the Equestrian Federation of India initially announced the team and later changed it and said that norms were not followed in the initial selection. The IOA had also recently dropped the triathlon team for the event.

"In 2015, even earlier such guidelines were issued to NSFs where criterion of 6th place in individual and 8th for team were proposed. This time more flexibility was provided by the clause - even if the athlete or team doesn't meet the criterion but NSF is convinced of top 4 finish they can propose the athlete or team for selection with well laid out justification," he added.