‘IOC not happy with govt role in SAG’

Sabi hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 11

The Union Government’s active participation in hosting the South Asian Games (SAG) has not gone down well with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  The world’s governing body of the Olympic movement deemed it as a direct intrusion into the Olympic charter, according to some Indian Olympic Association (IOA) officials.

“We had informed the Ministry that a direct involvement of the government may irk the IOC, and we are getting some feelers,” said IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta said.

The Games are being held under the aegis of South Asian Olympic Council, affiliated to the IOC. However, Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is the chairman of the SAG Organising Committee (OC), while SAI DG Injeti Srinivas is the CEO OC. 

But this was the only way for the Government to host the SAG after the IOA refused to take charge. The IOA had rejected the Ministry’s proposal to commit itself to the financial and technical aspect of the event. During a meeting between the Ministry and the IOA officials two months back, IOA president N Ramachandran had said that that after the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games corruption scandal, in which all top IOA bosses were put behind bars, no one in the organisation was willing to take any risks.

It was decided that the IOA wouldn’t play any role in the SAG. However, this understanding between the Ministry and the IOA has not been welcomed by the IOC, it has been learnt.

“We all want big events to be hosted in our country, but the ghost of the CWG is still haunting us in the IOA. Both the Ministry and the IOA seriously need to find a solution, otherwise India would not be able to host any big games in future,” Mehta said.

“The government’s prestige was involved in hosting these Games. But the IOA was very clear that its role would be strictly limited. We said no to financial handling,” Mehta added.

A Ministry official said: “The PM had committed to the SAARC nations that India will host the SAG. So, there was no question of whether the IOA was on the same page or not.”