New Delhi: The players who made headlines by winning a medal in lawn ball for the first time at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games three months ago are now looking for a sponsor for their next event. Delhi’s women’s team of schoolteachers and police constables won a historic gold medal at Victoria Park near Birmingham. After that the men’s team also won the silver medal. India won a medal in the Games for the first time since its inclusion in the Commonwealth Games in 1930. Navneet Singh, the youngest member of the men’s four team, hoped that his life would change after reaching the podium on August 6 but is disappointed to be back where he was three months ago. The Indian Bowling Federation was supposed to send a two-member team to New Zealand for the Champions of Champions tournament this month but pulled out due to financial constraints.
Bowling Federation of India treasurer Krishna Bir Singh Rathi told PTI that the per capita expenditure of Rs. 7 lakh comes in and usually the players manage the money themselves. We are hoping that we will get central government recognition soon so that we don’t have to worry about funding for training and participating in competitions.
27-year-old Navneet, who joined the sport during the Commonwealth Games in Delhi 12 years ago, also expressed disappointment. Navneet from Delhi, who did not take the flight test to participate in the Commonwealth Games, said, “We thought things would change but it hasn’t happened yet.” We hoped to get recognition from the government soon so that we can prepare our competition calendar in advance. Other members of Navneet’s team include sports teacher Chandan Kumar, 37, Jharkhand police officers Sunil Bahadur and Dinesh Kumar. The gold medal winning women’s team consisted of Pinky, Lovely Chaubey, Rupa Rani Tirki and Nayanmoni Sekia.
Rathi said he could not pay for food and accommodation during the training camp before the Commonwealth Games. The team members attended a four-month camp in Delhi before leaving for London for a 10-day camp ahead of the Birmingham Games. A total of one crore 32 lakh rupees was spent on it. Rathi said that we have requested the government to approve this expenditure as well, we are waiting. We applied for accreditation last year and the final is still with the sports ministry. Government recognition will give our sport the much needed boost.