Pruned Indian Contingent At Asian Games: Will The Medal Haul Happen?

With big names dropping out and participating sports contingent pruned, will India have an impressive medal haul at the 2014 Asian Games? The question is on the minds of many Indians who are looking forward to carve a niche for their country at the Asian Games, also known as Asiad, to be held at Incheon, South Korea between September 19 and October 4.

The current contingent of Indian team will have 679 members, who have been selected out of a list of 942 members. Among the members who will be in South Korea for the games include 516 athletes, and 163 coaches and support staff.

Will the medal tally improve this time around? The question gains significance for India since it is a member of the South Asian Zone of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and has been participating in games since its inception (in 1951). India is among the first five founding members of Asian Games Federation, and has successfully hosted the event on two occasions in the history of Asiad Games – the inaugural round in 1951 and then later in 1982.

The country is also among the only seven countries that have competed in all Asian Games editions, apart from countries such as Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Thailand.

It must be some relief that India has ‘at least’ one gold medal at every Asian game, and has been ranked within top 10 nations of the medal tally except in the year 1990. In all, India has bagged 545 medals across sporting segments over the years in Asiad games.

Though India is confident of bettering record from Guangzhou event held last in 2010, financial concerns and off field controversies are bound to impact the overall performance of the participating sportspersons.

The cricket-worshipping nation has always held other sports in somewhat less important level when compared to the passion with which Indians follow them. India has made significant stride in improving its medal position from eighth in 2002 and 2006 Asian games, to sixth in the last Asiad in Guangzhou. This in some way has rekindled hopes of Indian sports enthusiasts.

Clearly encouraged by the success of medal haul in the last common wealth games, the Indian Olympic Association had proposed a huge contingent of sportspersons to participate in the upcoming Asiad.

Sports Authority of India (SAI) resisted this and sought Prime Minister office’s intervention to create a more affordable and achievable team that could participate in the games and improve medal tally. In other words, SAI only wanted names of those who were highly capable of winning medals than those who would use it as a platform to hone their skills. Intervention done, the team size was brought down. Officials accompanying the sportspersons were also scaled down thus making the team leaner and efficiency oriented one compared to previous years.
Now, what’s lacking is the presence of ‘star players’ and those big Indian names that have become brands in their chosen areas.

India’s shooters are in super shape and SAI is hoping they would largely contribute to country’s medal-tally at the Asiad. Seasons tennis stars such as Somdev Devvarman, Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, and Rohan Bopanna have decided to give the game a miss, leaving a huge question mark on the medal part. Sqaush ace Dipika Pallikal, who earlier exuded confidence of bringing home a couple of medals, also expressed her displeasure at some not-so-healthy selection criteria of the games with her game partner Joshna Chinnappa.

Top wrestler Sushil Kumar who became a legend of sorts after his astounding victory at last the Olympics will also be giving the Asiad a miss owing to his rigorous preparation for the Olympics games to be held in 2016.

Apart from shooters, India will now have to focus on shuttlers to bring home some glory; all our hopes are now on top seed players Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu.

While the chief complaint against India’s poor performance in sports is dues to less exposure to international sporting circuits and events, along with poor training facilities, it still remains to be seen whether a leaner contingent with less burden of ‘officials’ will overtake Guangzhou in medal tally. If that happens, India would have learnt a smarter lesson and can have a better sports future.