AFI needs a plan B

AFI wants to weed out this mediocrity. By strengthening the selection committee8217;s culling shears,so that no Indian ever brings embarrassment by failing to clear the first height. It8217;s a lofty ambition based on the belief that India8217;s on the threshold of taking the next step. We reckon it isn8217;t.

This well-meaning shifting of goal-posts is pre-mature and should be deferred to the future when India actually starts teeming with talent,where selectors are faced with that delicious headache weighing two candidates; their trained eye summoned to pick the better bet. A squad of 14 needs no trimming.

It8217;s all well to have an elitist approach. But are we an elite nation a Jamaica,Kenya or USA? We8217;re not even Australia,who after much debating agreed to accomodate 8216;B8217;-athletes. Independent India8217;s never won an athletics medal. So a medal-or-nothing criterion,suits a sport like shooting. Athletics a polite not now,maybe later.

For,experience of the big stage can be all-important. Our recent medallists are mostly second-time Olympians. Ask Ronjan Sodhi or Deepika Kumari how different their results would be had this been their second turn.

AFI8217;s Adille Sumariwala insists there8217;s no funding crunch,which forced the pruning in Australia. Also,in Tintu Luka there8217;s one example of an athlete who made her 8216;B8217; standard count. Trinidadian Keshorn Walcott won the javelin gold after qualifying under a 8216;B8217; standard!

Finally,would I,a tax-payer,be embarrassed watching an Indian come 78th in an Olympic marathon? Nope.

In a country of a billion,no one else had even managed to qualify for the marathon in the last 30 years,before Ram Singh Yadav chomped away at the 42 kms with his 8216;B8217; standard. To B or not to be is best left to sedentary existentialists. Not modest athletic nations.

Shivani is a Special Correspondent,based in Mumbai.,shivani.naikexpressindia.com