A SportsCrunch Exclusive
Mumbai: In an unfortunate turn of events with the departmental permission not coming through, former Commonwealth Games Gold medalist boxer Akhil Kumar and Asian bronze-medallist Jitender Kumar are unlikely to make their professional debut during Vijender Singh’s title defence night on December 17.
However, Akhil still chooses to be positive over the issue. When asked about the same, Akhil expresses that if not now, then in the future he would surely receive permission from the government to go professional.
Both Akhil and Jitender are serving DSPs in the Haryana Police and are awaiting permission to turn professional, but to no avail as of now. Their application are caught up in bureaucratic red tape, travelling from one department to the other despite, another DSP, Vijender, getting permission for the same.
Speaking to SportsCrunch, Akhil opines, “I have always faced hard situations like this. Yes, I was fully prepared for the
competition and had I received the permission, then I would have got a chance to debut in India which would have been a very good thing for me. But let’s see where and when I debut.”
Elaborating on the delay, Akhil promptly replies, “I cannot really say anything about the reason for the delay. Whatever we could do, we did. We had properly submitted our application to the Director of Police (DEP) on November 7, 2016. He was also positive and had forwarded our application; it is not like he delayed it at all.”
“We also met the Haryana CM (Manohar Lal Khattar) who gave us a positive response. We also met our Sports minister, Anil Vij and he too sounded positive, so we have no idea why it is being delayed or where it got delayed,” he adds.
Further speaking on the matter, Akhil says, “A lot of professionals in other fields are from Haryana Police. And in fact one DSP (read Vijender) has been given permission to play the same sports. The company and procedure are also the same, yet there is so much of delay.”
A little dismayed yet a positive Akhil says, “I am still quite positive about me and whatever will happen will be good as Haryana is a state that has always promoted sports as well as sportspersons.”
The imbroglio raises questions about unwanted delays that can harm talented sportspersons’ careers. Hopefully, bureaucratic rigmaroles will not be an impediment when it comes to giving a proper platform to the ones who do the country proud. They cannot be deprived of their due.