Kolkata: Blame it on sheer irresponsibility on the part of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), a team of ten young Indian pugilists which was prepared to take part in the Chemistry Cup this year, will miss the golden opportunity. The federation failed to provide the players with visas. “The visas could not come because we got to know quite late that the applications for Schengen visas are now supposed to be filed from the region to which you belong. We were used to a centralised process which could be done from Delhi,” said BFI’s President, Ajay Singh.
The 44th edition of the Chemistry Cup which is to be hosted by Germany this year, is a prestigious tournament in boxing. Moreover, what made this tournament even more significant to India this year was the fact that the BFI was sending ten fresh boxers to test the bench strength of Indian boxing. The boxers who were to represent India in this International tournament were exclusively picked from the Aurangabad camp, under the expert guidance of Shiv Singh. Singh has been one of the two coaches assigned to train the male boxers. Out of the ten, two boxers, namely Ankush Dahiya (60kg) and Reyal Puri (80kg) have been Asian youth silver medallists. This was a great opportunity for them to prove their might internationally.
However, the BFI claimed that there was no reason for the boxers who returned from the National Capital empty handed, to be upset. The federation has decided to compensate for its negligence by sending the boxers to another important tournament in a few days. “The boys who were selected for this tournament will be sent for another event very soon, in fact, in the next fortnight itself. They should not feel disheartened, we are already in talks for a couple of invitational tournaments in the next 20 days,” claimed the BFI president, Singh.
This is high time that the BFI should pull up its socks. In the Rio Olympics, India has had to face trouble due to jersey related issues and now comes this visa fiasco. Yes, boxing in India may not be as popular as cricket and football, but it is a sport of great worth and huge popularity worldwide. Wake up BFI!
(With inputs from PTI)