NEW DELHI: Amidst all the infrastructure-related din and all-round pessimism, it’s baffling that athletes’ training/preparation – the most important aspect of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) for India – is seemingly completely neglected. All top officials are so engrossed in making up for lost time on various projects that no one seems to have time to keep track of how the athletes are shaping up. 
The Parliamentary standing committee, however, took note of this gaping hole way back in mid-2007. “The committee is surprised to know that funds have projected/allocated for every other activity such as construction of Games Village, stadia, roads, transport etc., but not for the training of our sportspersons for the Games. The committee hopes that the ministry appreciates the high expectations the country has about its performance at the Games,” it had said then in its report. Almost two years later, the picture has hardly changed.
The government has sanctioned Rs 3.75 billion exclusively for athletes’ training. While it is hoped and expected that Indian athletes will win more medals than the 50 they won at the previous Games in 2006 in Melbourne to finish fourth, it won’t be a cakewalk just because they will be on home turf. Remember, all the venues would be new and the Indians would need time to get used to the new turfs/equipment that are being installed there. But since the stadia construction/renovation are slated to finish so close to the Games that the athletes are unlikely to get enough time to gain that crucial home advantage.
How much athletes’ training/preparation was neglected became evident again when the government approval for the ‘Scheme for Preparation of Indian Teams for CWG 2010’ came as late as June last year. And then the announcement of the probables took its own sweet time to be announced. All that meant that our athletes, unfortunately, would get less than two years to prepare for the Games at which expectations of home fans would be sky high.
A total of 424 athletes will represent India. But in each sport, around three times more the number of sportspersons have been selected (1,286) for training. The scheme targets a maximum of 127 medals from the 18 disciplines, including the Elite Athletes with Disability category, which is also important as medals won here are also included in the medal tally.
India had finished fourth at both the 2002 Manchester Games (69 medals) and in 2006 (50) while Australia topped the medal tally at both the games with 207 and 221 medals respectively. On both occasions, England and Canada had finished second and third respectively.
Considering that the Indians will compete in all the disciplines and will also have the supposed ‘home advantage’, it is surprising that the sports ministry has set such a low target – of winning between 96 and 127 medals. They don’t seem to be sure of even that figure and, interestingly, have not specified how many of those medals would be gold, silver and bronze. Overall, the 64-page verbose scheme actually presents quite a pessimistic picture in terms of medal projection.
India is again pinning its biggest hope on the shooters and the ministry expects them to clinch 30 to 35 medals out of the maximum 60 that a country can win. The biggest hope would be rifle ace Abhinav Bindra, who won the historic gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Pistol shooter Samresh Jung, who had won seven medals, including five of golden hue, to be adjudged the Best Athlete of the 2006 Melbourne Games, and rifle ace Gagan Narang will be the other ones to look up to. India had won 50 medals – comprising 22 gold and 17 silver – in Melbourne.
Our sports administrators have projected wrestling – which was dropped in Melbourne and has again been included in Delhi – as the second most prolific medal- winning sport with 21. There will be 84 medals at stake but a country can win a maximum of 21 in the sport. The prediction for the other sports is: weightlifting (10-12 medals), athletics (4-10), boxing (6-8), aquatics (2-4 medals), table tennis (4-6), archery (4), badminton (2-4), gymnastics (3-5), hockey (2), lawn bowls (1-2), squash (2-4), tennis (2-4), cycling (1-2), and EAD (2-4). Only in women’s netball and Rugby 7s, they admit, India would not win any medal.
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