Badminton stars Saina Nehwal’s father or PV Sindhu’s mother won’t be part of the official Indian contingent for the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia with the Indian Olympic Association formulating a no-parents policy for the August-September Games, the Tribune reported on Sunday.
A major controversy had broken out at the Commonwealth Games in April when Nehwal threatened to pull out of the tournament if her father, Harvir Singh, was not given an accreditation and allowed to stay in the Games Village. Even Sindhu’s mother was part of the Indian contingent and stayed with the team in the Village.
According to the report, Nehwal had applied for an accreditation for her father for the Asian Games as well but the IOA has rejected her request and would inform all the sports federations about its no-parent policy for the Games.
“We have said no to her request to get accreditation for her father for the Asian Games. The reason is that this will be unfair on other athletes,” an IOA source was quoted as saying. “Besides, as per protocol, only specific family members are allowed – the spouse of a minister, IOA chief and secretary general.
“We will write to all national sports federations to not send us any requests to include somebody’s father or mother in the official contingent,” the source added. “We will only allow a family member to travel with the team if he or she is involved in the athlete’s sport in some capacity. Sorry to say, but Mr Harvir Singh is not involved in badminton at all.”
Shooter Heena Sidhu’s husband Ronak Pandit had also courted controversy with the Sports Ministry first declining to clear him for the Commonwealth Games. However, the IOA source told the paper that the former international was not just coaching Heena and other shooters, he is also an advisor to the National Rifle Association of India.
Nehwal takes decision in her stride
When asked about her request to IOA, Saina told the paper, “April 30th was the last date, so they had asked me to send the name of whoever was accompanying me. Did they say anything to you?
“I am not thinking about him getting accommodation at the Games Village, we can always get him a hotel. But I want an accreditation for him so that he can come and watch my matches. It is not easy to get tickets.
“Keep the tickets for all the days and give them to us so that we don’t have an issue. We will pay for that, but the main thing is that he should get to watch the matches and be with me during the competition,” she was quoted as saying.