Pune: The fallout over the axing of five players from the tennis team for the Asian Games by the sports ministry took a dramatic turn on Monday with an RTI being filed by two lawyers challenging the Centre’s selection guidelines for the quadrennial showpiece next month in Japan.“In a major legal intervention for transparency and athlete rights, sports lawyer Prasang Raheja and corporate lawyer Kosturi Ghosh have jointly launched dual legal proceedings against the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI),” a press release from the lawyers said.“The attorneys have filed a high-priority RTI application alongside an official public grievance petition on the CPGRAMS portal, formally challenging the selection methodology applied to the Indian Tennis Contingent for the upcoming Asian Games.“Through their joint filings, Raheja and Ghosh have requisitioned complete certified copies of selection file notings, committee minutes, assessment sheets, and official records establishing the legal basis and application of the “Asian Top 6″ rule,” the release added. Terming the “Asian Top 6” ranking criteria for selection as “rigid”, the lawyers claimed India was the only country to adopt the policy in Asia and “threatened to leave India completely unrepresented in major draws and systematically excludes top-performing national singles talents who despite no real assistance from the government are producing noteworthy results against strong competitors, including those from Asia.”“Historical precedents conclusively demonstrate that ranking cutoffs do not dictate outcomes: Prajnesh Gunneswaran (World No. 243) and Ankita Raina (World No. 119) both captured Bronze medals at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games despite being ranked outside top benchmarks.”Earlier this month, the ministry struck down the country’s top singles women players Sahaja Yamalapalli, Vaishnavi Adkar and Vaidehee Chaudhari and doubles player Prarthana Thombare as well as men’s rising singles talent Manas Dhamne from the 12-member team picked by the All India Tennis Association.The move invited a sharp reaction from former world no. 1 and Grand Slam winner in doubles, Rohan Bopanna. Sumit Nagal, Dhakshineswar Suresh (men’s singles); Yuki Bhambri, Sriram Balaji and Anirudh Chandrasekhar (men’s doubles); Ankita and Rutuja Bhosale (women’s doubles) were cleared by the ministry for the continental event to be held from September 19 to October 4 in Aichi-Nagoya.
