Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Games Indian Olympic Assn. plays!

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD Oct. 12. By all means, it is a `protocol check' for the Indian Olympic Association. Apparently peeved at the glaring discrepancies in the long list of delegates being invited for the Afro-Asian Games, the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, has stepped in to issue a circular suggesting that the State Government will stick to the Olympic Council of Asia protocol in terms of accommodation for the Games.

This message was conveyed by Mr. Naidu in a letter to the Afro-Asian Games Secretariat to be forwarded to the authorities concerned. The IOA had named close to 450 officials, including 180 presidents and secretaries of all the national athletic federations of the 97 participating nations, expected to be here for the Games, and that they be provided high class accommodation.

It has always been debatable as to why officials of athletics only are being favoured when there are other disciplines like boxing, weightlifting, football, hockey, tennis, shooting and swimming. The Chief Minister's message is clear. Accommodation would be provided to only those officials coming in the protocol ambit like continental federation representatives (two each from Asia and Africa), representatives of the international federations of the respective disciplines, members of the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia.

In a way, the hint to the IOA is that the National Olympic Committees of Africa and Asia, totalling 194, may not be in the `favoured list.' Consequently, the delegates' list would be pruned to 255 from the original figure.

The break-up is as follows: executive board of ANOCA - 15, executive board of OCA - 21, of IOA - 15, IOC members from Africa - 17, from Asia - 26, IOC delegates and directors - 13, ANOC - 2, Continental Association (EOC) - 2, CA (Oceania)-2, CA (Pan-America) - 2, Continental Sports Federations from Africa - 16, of Asia - 16, International Sports Federations - 16, Commonwealth Games Federation executive board-14, and Commonwealth Games Associations - 46.

Caught on the wrong foot, the IOA top brass is said to have rushed to Delhi to seek clearance to avoid the embarrassment.

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