India’s first individual Olympic gold medalist Bindra is apparently upset at being repeatedly asked to appear in trials and feels NRAI should instead accept his scores in tournaments abroad for selection.
Joint Secretary in the Sports Ministry Injeti Srinivas told PTI that the Ministry was flexible and would not object if NRAI decides to exempt elite shooters from trials.
“It’s for the National Sports Federations (NSF) to lay down the selection criteria. If NRAI tells the Ministry tomorrow that they want to follow a separate approach for the top shooters and exempt Abhinav from trials, we would have no objection. But we have received no such request till now,” Srinivas said.
“The ministry insists on NSFs having a well-calibrated selection criteria implemented in a transparent manner so that it results in the best team representing the country. Now what the criteria should be is something left entirely to the NSFs,” he explained.
“The Ministry has no doubts whatsoever that Bindra is our top shooter and that’s why he, along with some other elite shooters like Rajyavardhan Rathore or Manavjit Singh are allowed tailor-made, personalised training. We have spent Rs 1.5 crore for the training Bindra is undergoing,” Srinivas said.
