Two athletes, both from the Indian Army, are stuck in a foreign land, unable to train because of lack of funding from their own National Sports Federation. There are no prizes for guessing that it is the Equestrian Federation of India, inarguably the worst administered in the country, which has left Apurva Dabhade and Vikas Kumar in the deep end.
This has come to write in an emotional appeal that Apurva Dabhade has made in an email to the Federation officials. “Considering the Asian Games are merely a month and a half away, every day lost to this impasse hampers our preparations,” he wrote, earnestly hoping that EFI officials would make the right decision.
He also marked the email to Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Sports Authority of India officials believing that they would understand the riders’ plight and come to their rescue. The pain in Apurva Dabhade’s e-mail will pierce the stoniest of hearts.
“After July 20, due to a lack of fund disbursement, coach Mr. Rodolphe Scherer had no choice but to halt the national coaching camp. This pause in training has had a significant impact on the progress of both Maj. Apurva Dabhade and Dfr Vikas Kumar, who are valued members of the Indian Army,” he wrote.
“For the past ten days, we have been unable to engage with our horses and continue our training…
In light of the above circumstances, we find ourselves in a challenging position to maintain our training without the continued support of government agencies. We earnestly request your immediate attention and intervention to rectify the current situation, granting us the opportunity to resume training,” he wrote.
It can only be hoped that the Services Sports Control Board steps in to assist Apurva Dabhade and Vikas Kumar resume training. For long, self-serving EFI officials, most drawn from the Army, have claimed that the sport has survived only because of the Army. These officials are now letting down the hallowed institution by putting several Indian riders through trauma.
The uncertainty will also spread to Raju Singh despite the backing from the Madhya Pradesh Government since he has qualified only for the team event as per the norms set by the Federation. Only Ashish Limaye, funded by Embassy Riding School, has made the grade in both events. The odds on India winning the team medal are better than the odds on his winning an individual medal.
The simplest thing for EFI officials would have been to take the riders, Apurva Dabhade and Vikas Kumar, into confidence and call them back. Instead, it appears that they have left the two of them in the lurch, facing humiliation in a foreign land. EFI officials should never have embarked on the plan to send the riders overseas if they did not have the wherewithal to back the team with funds.
EFI officials lost interest in preparing the Eventing team once two of its favourite riders returned home after being unable to achieve even the lower Minimum Eligibility Requirement (MER), let alone the EFI’s MER, in one event. Coach Rodolphe Scherer, in fact, wrote to the Federation last month that the officials’ attitude changed after Ashish Malik and Rakesh Kumar’s failure.
It is possible that EFI officials have been pricked by allegations of biased allocation funds only to the Eventing team by Dressage rider Gaurav Pundir in a new Writ filed before the High Court of Delhi. Aware of their follies, they have suddenly turned off the funding tap for the Eventing team as well. The unholy mess that EFI officials now find themselves in is entirely their own creation.
It is also possible that the Federation officials, as they have done in the past, point fingers at the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, but a quick look at EFI’s audited balance sheet presented to and passed by the annual general meeting last month will reveal that its officials have not hesitated to earmark Rs. 50 lakh in the coming year for legal and professional fees.
In fact, EFI has spent Rs 87.47 lakh in three years from 2020-21 on Legal Professional matters. It earned Rs. 3.87 crore from riders in the three years to give them No Objection Certificates for participation in events overseas. You can read more on that here in a piece published on July 7 this year.
Even a layman can tell that you have some personal
animosity and agenda against the Equestrian Federation of India. Sad to note the state of sports journalism of India, where stalwarts like yourself have resorted to acrimonious reporting where you yourself are the judge, jury and the executioner.