History was created for the first time in Commonwealth by winning gold in lawn balls, why are the team players disappointed now?

New Delhi. The players, who grabbed headlines by winning a medal in lawn balls for the first time at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games three months ago, are now looking for a sponsor for their next competition. The women’s team of a school teacher and police constable from Delhi won a historic gold medal at Victoria Park near Birmingham. After this, the men’s team also won the silver medal. India won a medal in this sport for the first time after its inclusion in the Commonwealth Games in 1930.

Navneet Singh, the youngest member of the men’s fours team, was hoping his life would turn around after finishing on the podium on August 6, but ‘all of them’ are disappointed to be back where they were three months ago.

The Bowling Federation of India was supposed to send a two-member team to New Zealand for the Champions of Champions tournament this month but backed out due to financial crunch. Krishna Bir Singh Rathi, treasurer of the Bowling Federation of India, told PTI, “The per capita expenditure comes to Rs 7 lakh and the players generally manage the money themselves. We hope that we will get the recognition of the central government soon so that we do not have to worry about the funds for training and participating in the competition.

We thought things would change but it didn’t: Players
Navneet, 27, who joined the sport 12 years ago during the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, also expressed his disappointment. Navneet from Delhi, who did not appear for the flying test to take part in the Commonwealth Games, said, “We thought things would change but it has not happened so far. We were hoping to get recognition from the government soon so that we can make our competition calendar much earlier.

Other members of Navneet’s team included 37-year-old sports teacher Chandan Kumar, Jharkhand police officers Sunil Bahadur and Dinesh Kumar. Pinky, Lovely Choubey, Rupa Rani Tirkey and Nayanmoni Sekia got place in the gold medal winning women’s team. Rathi told that he has not been able to pay for the food and lodging arrangements during the training camp before the Commonwealth Games.

Application has been given for recognition last year
The team members attended a four-month camp in Delhi before leaving for London for a 10-day camp just before the Birmingham Games. The total expenditure on this came to one crore 32 lakh rupees. Rathi said, “We have requested the government to approve this expenditure as well, we are waiting. We applied for recognition last year and the final is still with the Sports Ministry. With the recognition of the government, our game will get the necessary boost.

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Tags: Commonwealth Games 2022, sports news