IOA strike back at CGF Asia region officials for questioning president Narinder Batra
The IOA has hit back at the Commonwealth Games Federation’s (CGF) Asia region top officials for questioning its president Narinder Batra’s right to call for the boycott of the 2022 CWG for excluding shooting from the roster. The CGF has left out shooting from the 2022 Birmingham Games.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has struck back at the Commonwealth Games Federation’s (CGF) Asia region top officials for questioning its president Narinder Batra’s right to call for the boycott of the 2022 CWG after the CGF Executive meeting revealed that the shooting event is being dropped.
The minutes of the meeting of the CGF Asia region, which met at the sidelines of the CGF General Assembly in Rwanda on September 3, were sent to the IOA from the office of CGF’s Asian region vice president Chris Chan. It had said that Batra “cannot speak for the country (India)“ when he proposed the Commonwealth Games’ boycott.
The IOA shot back a strongly-worded letter to Chan, criticising the statement of the CGF and terming it “unwarranted.”
“With reference to minutes of Asia Regional Meeting of Commonwealth Sport held on 3rd September 2019, the CGA/NOC India condemns the statement challenging the rights of our president. The recording of such a statement was unwarranted and we hope needful corrections would be made soon,” Rajeev Mehta, IOA Secretary General, wrote in the letter.
“Although CGA/NOC India has been overlooked many times despite the fact that India is the only nation in Asia that has hosted the CWG in the last two decades, we have maintained a cordial relationship with the office of CGF and all member countries in the region,” he added.
Mehta said Batra, the President of CGA/NOC India, who is also president of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is a known international sports administrator and he is authorised [to call the boycott] and has full powers to speak on behalf of commonwealth sport in India.
He added that exclusion of shooting from the Commonwealth Games is “the anguish of a billion people.”
The minutes of CGF’s Asia region signed by Chan stated, “Asia expressed disappointment that India has questioned the relevance of the Commonwealth and took the stand they did, and said that the NOC/GCA president cannot speak for the country.”
It said that India should have talked to the region before taking this step.
“The CGF does not have a disciplinary process in place for India, and does not run shooting so ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation) must take responsibility. The cost of shooting competition held in Glasgow 2014 was 22 million pound,” the minutes further revealed.
The CGF, in June, announced that shooting is being left out from the 2022 Birmingham Games while recommended the inclusion of three new sports. In an unprecedented move, a month later, the IOA proposed a boycott of the 2022 Birmingham CWG for dropping shooting from the roster and sought the government’s approval.
The decision to leave out shooting has come as a big blow to India which had won as many as 16 medals out of 66 in the 2018 CWG. The sport has featured in every Commonwealth Games since 1966 with the exception of Edinburgh 1970.