Disciplines jostling for own space at National Games 2016

PANAJI: The Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) will have to endure influence from several quarters as disciplines left out of the National Games 2016 are now desperately trying to get a look in.

The state government is not keen on staging more than 30 disciplines at the National Games to be held in Goa next year. Goa does not have money to splurge too but with every sports association in the state having a politician at its helm, sports minister Ramesh Tawadkar's phone is expected to be busy.

"We are now looking at about 28-30 disciplines. The IOA rules stipulate that we host a minimum of 28 disciplines," said SAG executive director Sandip Jacques.

According to the list prepared by SAG and vetted by the sports minister, athletics, archery, aquatics, badminton, baseball, basketball, handball, beach handball, boxing, cycling, fencing, football, gymnastics, hockey, judo, kabaddi, kho kho, netball, rifle shooting, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, yachting, beach volleyball, canoeing/kayaking and rowing are the 30 disciplines that have been shortlisted.

Kerala hosted 33 sporting disciplines at the last National Games early this year. But while Goa is in no mood to entertain sports like lawn bowls, rugby sevens, triathlon and wushu -- all of which found a pride of place in Kerala -- the state has added baseball to their list.

"Baseball is not an Olympic sport but the sport is doing so well here and winning so many medals for us that we thought it best to accommodate them," explained Jacques.

With baseball, a non-Olympic sport, being accommodated, other sports associations are preparing ground not to be left far behind. Tennis ball cricket, for example, have won a sackful of medals for the state at all levels and have produced international players, while tchoukball -- headed by BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar -- and Tawadkar's own rope skipping could find acceptance as demo sports.

There will be influence from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), too, to accommodate favoured sports. It will be difficult to ignore the claims of Lawn Bowls, a game championed by Sunaina Kumari, daughter of Olympic Council of Asia secretary-general Randhir Singh. Sunaina is the first woman to head the Bowling Federation of India and vice-president of Asian Lawn Bowls Federation.

Modern Pentathlon, a relatively new sport in India, had impressed upon the IOA general body in Chennai to include them in the next edition of the National Games. The federation's founder secretary is Namdev Shirgaonkar, an executive council member of IOA, and wields considerable influence.