Team for C146;wealth Games 145;cleared146;

The Sports Ministry, after a long deliberation, seems to have resigned to the fate and in principle 8216;cleared8217; the 160-odd strong I...

The Sports Ministry, after a long deliberation, seems to have resigned to the fate and in principle 8216;cleared8217; the 160-odd strong Indian contingent for the Manchester Commonwealth Games, beginning July 25.

The official clearance, according to a Ministry official, is expected in the next couple of days. The reason for delay is the ongoing World Cup Shooting champaionships at Lahti Finland, where the cream of Indian shooters are participating.

Besides there are also chances of the men8217;s hockey team getting the nod from FIH at the cost of the team from the Caribbean, who may pull out the competition because of the financial reasons. If this happens, the Commonwealth Games organisers will opt for India, who were not given an automatic entry after they won the Asian Games gold in Bangkok.

Be that as it may, the Ministry is said to have annoyed over the list of shooters that the Indian Olympic Association IOA has sent for clearance along with the rest of the Indian contingent. The National Rifle Association of India NRAI has submitted a list of 30 shooters and four officials to the IOA for onward transmission to the Ministry for clearance. The Ministry also believes that it was not worth sending our gymnastics team.

In fact, the federation has forwarded a list to the IOA that included four women gymnasts as well. But the IOA just struck their names off and forwarded only the men gymnasts for clearance. The Ministry is said to have objected to the list of shooters sent for the Finland World Cup but relented after it was coaxed that the Finland event was crucial as it offered several 8216;quota8217; places for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

As an official commented, what they have done so far is to win 8216;8216;half a medal.8217;8217; The official was talking about the lone bronze medal won by Rajkumari in junior women category of sports rifle prone.

But IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh said they have gone by the Ministry norm 8212; fourth place in the previous Games8212; and after careful scrutiny at its end, the IOA forwarded the list to the Ministry. Randhir also said that if some shooters, for some reasons fail to achieve the qualifying norm, they can be sent back. 8216;8216;But any delay in clearance of the team puts everyone in a kind of fix,8217;8217; he said.