Sometimes, we can't help but slap our forehead and sigh "Only in India!"
Even though, until a week ago, it seemed all but guaranteed that all of India's participants who have qualified in various disciplines will be part of the country's national contingent to Korea, this ridiculous saga began when the Sports Authority of India (SAI) recommended that the large number of athletes and officials in India's proposed list (944 total) be cut down to avoid embarrassment. SAI's director general Jiji Thompson had said "The IOA list is huge and we have recommended pruning. We don't want the athletes to cut a sorry figure there. We want to send people with a realistic chance of winning medals since it's the country's pride that is at stake."
According to DNA India, SAI's strict criteria for the participating athletes was for the athlete to be ranked at least top six in the while the team to be in the top eight. Five sports - Basketball, Football, Handball, Table Tennis, and Sepak Takraw - potentially faced the axe from the government if SAI's recommendation had been followed.
Meanwhile, both of India's Men and Women's football teams, who had headed to Shanghai (China) for an exposure trip in preparation for the Asian Games, remained stranded out there without any knowledge of what the government's future decision was going to be.
Eventually, good news (for some) trickled in yesterday when it was confirmed that the five threatened sporting disciplines - including basketball - have been cleared as part of India's final contingent for Korea. And if you think that the decision was made because the government suddenly had a change of heart about the importance of promoting these sports, you would be wrong: the decision was made because India were warned by the Asian Games organizing committee that they would have to pay a heavy penalty if the basketball, football, etc teams backed out now after previously confirming their participation and even being drawn into groups at the tournament.
This tournament is incredibly crucial for Indian basketball. The Men's team is coming off a memorable performance at the FIBA Asia Cup in Wuhan (China) in July where they turned heads with their improved performances and even scored a memorable win over Asia's top team, China. India's women's side haven't been too shabby either; India finished at a best-ever fifth place in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship for Women in Thailand, including their first-ever triumph in Level 1 of the tournament, an overtime win over Kazakhstan. For India to continue on the right track to improvement, it is important for our teams to get as much high-level international experience as possible. The Men and Women have been preparing for the Asian Games basketball tournament for several months, and it's a relief that the positive momentum that the teams had built up won't be halted due to SAI's silly claim that they didn't want "the athletes to cut a sorry figure" at Incheon, as Jiju Thomson said.
How are we ever going to improve and reach the top eight unless we play against as many top teams as possible? Denying Indian teams top level experience was only going to make our teams worse and thus - by the same SAI reasoning - decrease the chances of Indian participation in disciplines such as basketball even further.
India had sent 609 athletes in a delegation of 933 to the Guangzhou Games in China four years ago where they participated in 35 disciplines and won 65 medals, including 14 gold.
Even though the result (for basketball) is a positive one, this is a worrying trend for India. If SAI or the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs only start thinking about sending teams who are going to be medal hopefuls, India's contingents for these events are going to get smaller and smaller. The basketball teams were finally cleared this time because of a fear of the penalty: but what if, in the 2018 Asian Games, the government doesn't register the participating of basketball, football, and similar sports in the first place so to skip the penalty altogether? Jiji Thompson had said that, "We want to send people with a realistic chance of winning medals since it's the country's pride that is at stake." This is what I say: Dear Mr. Thompson, the country's pride isn't just about winning medals, it's about competing with pride. Which is what our athletes always do.
After qualifying for the tournament for the first time in 28 years, India went winless at the basketball tournament at Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010, finishing 0-5 and 0-3 in the Men's and Women's tournament's respectively. China are both the Men's and Women's reigning basketball champs at the Asian Games.
