Mukesh wins his bout to get on Athens flight

Yesterday, Thakran and Mukesh’s father Om Prakash approached the IOA — the issuing authority — for the tickets but officials there sought a letter from the WFI, the SAI or the Sports Ministry, despite the fact that the wrestler had already been cleared by the ministry. IOA officials said that’s standard requirement, effectively passing the buck to the federation. When contacted today, Rajinder Gulia of the WFI said they had already despatched the letter to the IOA. Eventually, Thakran and Om Prakash obtained the relevant letter from the teams wing of SAI and, late at night, the IOA told this paper that they had fixed the dates for wrestler and coach.

The problem stems from a tussle between the WFI and the Sports Ministry; the federation wanted national coach Gian Singh to accompany the wrestler to Athens, which the ministry refused, saying Thakran would go because he had been training Khatri for a long time. Indeed, the ministry had sent Thakran with Khatri to Colorado Springs in June to train with US wrestlers as its pre-Games programme.

On August 6, the day Khatri returned to India, the WFI sent a letter to R K Mishra, joint secretary in the Sports Ministry, requesting that Ravinder Kumar be considered in place of Mukesh, as the federation didn’t know Mukesh’s whereabouts.

Curiously, though, the day before, the WFI had written to Mukesh at his US address stating it had tried to contact him. And in the same letter, with a copy addressed to his father, the WFI advised Mukesh to collect his and Thakran’s accreditation!