The Hindu : Sport : Only Indian citizens can represent the country

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Saturday, Dec 27, 2008
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Sport - Sports : General

Only Indian citizens can represent the country

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Union Government has decided that, henceforth, players who are Indian citizens only can avail themselves of government assistance to represent the country. This will also be applicable in the consideration of proposals for the participation of national teams in international sports events.

A Sports Ministry press release stated that the “Issue of Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) representing the Country in international sports events has been a subject matter of debate in some of the National Sports Federations (NSFs), and in the absence of a uniform national policy on the matter, different federations have been following different rules in this regard.

Uniform policy

Recently, the decision of the Squash Racket Federation of India (SRFI) to restrict the representation of the country to only those players who hold the citizenship of India, had been challenged by the affected players and the Delhi High Court had directed the Government to formulate a uniform policy on the matter in the best interest of sports in the country.

According to the Sports Ministry spokesman, “Pursuant to the above direction of the High Court of Delhi, the Government has consulted the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and all recognised NSFs and sought their comments on the following issues:

a) Whether a person who is not a citizen of India should be allowed to carry the flag of India or walk under it and represent the country in any national / international sports events; b) Whether the local talent should be given overriding preference in terms of talent scouting, nurturing and training with the ultimate objective of promoting and developing local talent to international standards; c) Whether it is appropriate that slots available to represent India may be taken up by non-citizens depriving citizens the opportunity to learn and develop from competitions.

Majority opinion

The majority opinion, as the Sports Ministry claimed, has emerged in favour of restricting the representation of India in international sports events to players who are citizens of India.

Some federations have not offered any comments on the matter and have indicated that they would adhere to the policy laid down by the Government in this regard. The Sports Ministry had written to the IOA and the federations twice on November 4 and December 1 but the former never replied even though most federations supported the decision to allow national representation only to Indian citizen.

Based on the responses received from the federations, the entire matter has been carefully examined by the Government and after taking into account all relevant considerations, including the general and specific rights conferred upon PIOs and OCIs as also other considerations such as the limited availability of resources to invest in nurturing world class athletes and the long-term interests of the country to emerge as a frontrunner in the field of sports, the Government has taken the decision to provide assistance only to those players who have Indian citizenship. The IOA and all the recognised NSFs have been advised accordingly.

Blow to tennis players

The decision would inflict a blow to India’s tennis hopes as Davis Cupper Prakash Amritraj and the three women’s players — Sunitha Rao, Shikha Uberoi and Neha Uberoi — all United States citizens, will not be henceforth considered for selection. Sunitha had represented India at the Beijing Olympics while Shikha participated in the 2006 Asian Games at Doha. As far as the All India Tennis Association is concerned, it has already indicated that it would abide by whatever decision the Government takes.

The Sports Ministry sources have also argued that these players stand little chance to represent the country to which they owe their allegiance. “The whole issue is a storm in a tea cup and is restricted to a small member which does not enjoy dual citizenship. The Indian Constitution does not have such provisions,” said the Sports Ministry source.

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