[The above image is for representation purpose only]
The Equestrian Federation of India simply cannot resist courting controversy. Even in the times of Covid-19 — and when its whole approach to governance has come under severe scrutiny — EFI has plunged deep in trouble with its act of omission and commission.
This time a talented teenage rider, Shashank Kanumuri, has been left wondering why he was not nominated to be a part of the Indian team in the FEI Dressage World Challenge held earlier this month. After all, he had logged a string of good performances in the past 12 months, including winning the National Junior Championships and topping qualifying for the Asian Championships.
Curiously, it is not just the rider and his parents who are anguished but also the selectors who are up in arms against the manner in which the Federation officials kept them in the dark when they met to pick the team. It transpires that the Federation secretariat did not share all the relevant information with the selectors when rushing them to pick the team for an event 24 hours later.
At least one of the selection committee members has written to the EFI Secretary General asking him to ensure that EFI apologises to the aggrieved rider. Worse, the selector wrote that the committee had been kept in the dark about the fact that some events had been left out of the results shared with its members by the EFI secretariat.
The selector has indicated that the EFI secretariat called the meeting of the selectors at a moment’s notice on November 4, a day before the World Dressage Challenge (North India) was held in Delhi. With the selectors nominating a rider from the Madhya Pradesh Equestrian Academy, Bhopal, in the youth category, the event in Bengaluru on November 8 was held only for individual rankings.
He also pointed out that selection criteria had not been specified beforehand and has insisted that EFI must publicise the criteria at least a month before the event, allowing everyone time to suggest any changes and avoid oversight. It remains to be seen if EFI will learn from this experience and ensure that there is no repeat of such errors.
As things panned out, Shashank Kanumuri (astride Qurt de Montplaisir) overcame the shock of being left out of the team to finish with a better score (70.825 per cent) than the 69.575 per cent awarded to the rider picked as India’s official representative. And, yes, the judges in the Bengaluru event were the same as in the Delhi event – Col. Sunil Shivdas and Col. Sukhdev Rathore.
Is this incompetence or something else? This act could easily have been bracketed in the incompetence, or even oversight, category but eyebrows have to be raised since an unfettered official of the Federation reportedly threatened to cancel all future FEI Dressage and Jumping Challenge events in south India if he were questioned by anybody about selection matters.
When a coach and officials asked the EFI official to specify the selection criteria and why results of events held in the south in the last year were not shared with the selectors, the all-powerful officials retorted with a threat to ensure that the cancellation of FEI Dressage and Jumping World Challenge competitions in South India,
For all that, the successful conduct of the FEI Dressage World Challenge events in Delhi and Bengaluru have thrown EFI’s argument that its day to day functioning has suffered. EFI prayed before the Delhi High Court to remove the restriction imposed on Lt. Gen. SS Mishra from functioning as its President.
Come to think of it, the EFI selection committee meeting was held without the President in chair as is needed by the National Sports Development Code of India 2011. It was the first of the indications that EFI’s functioning has not been affected by the absence of a President. But with all powers being concentrated in one individual, established norms appear to have been cast aside.
It does not seem to be an oversight by the EFI, it seems to be the usual deliberate choosing riders of their choice, as done in the past.