Mumbai: Under the effect of aftershock given by shooters at Rio, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) came up with a scheme to set up a special committee. It’s headed by Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, and accompanied by four others. Committee member, former Asian Games gold-medallist tennis player Manisha Malhotra as convener, has come out with a damning 36-page report, reviewing the performance.
The report backed itself with a statement claiming that somewhere between of high expectations and low measures, We faced such a setback.
“Everyone took it for granted that there would be progress automatically, and forgot to ensure a systematic healthy process,” it stated.
“To sum up the deliberations of the committee it can be said with no reservations that Indian Shooting ‘over achieved’ at the Rio Olympic Games. The formula for success was wrong and Indian Shooting had ridden its luck over the last few years, no doubt helped by some extremely talented shooters,” it added.
The council was given charge after a disheartening performance by 12 Olympic-qualified Indian shooters. Only Bindra, managed to grab fourth-place finish in 10m Air Rifle event being the best show.
“The committee was unanimous in its view that Indian shooting needs to change, change its attitude, its policies and practices, so that the booming talent gets a fair chance to flourish in a healthy atmosphere, and win all the medals that it can in the World Championships and the Olympics.
“The ‘chalta hai’ attitude that shadows Indian sport has to be stopped. The NRAI has to shed excess flab and needs to become a lean and mean fighting machine to ensure the implementation of a system that will churn out Champions. At present the system is adhoc. There is no systemic framework in place,” the committee pointed out.
The report also attacked individually, with Gagan Narang, Heena Sidhu, and to the rising Ayonika Paul, all were set on targets of criticism.
The charge sheet comes with the Player’s shortcomings and how they can tackle it. These steps will surely enhance our performance during next Olympics.