Wrestlers suffer as WFI faces crunch

New delhi, India’s participation at the prestigious Dave Schultz Memorial Invitational tournament in the USA and Granma ‘y’ Cerro Pelado Championships in Cuba is in the doldrums as the national federation is struggling to arrange funds for the trip after exhausting its entire annual budget.The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is facing a severe cash crunch to send its men’s and women’s (freestyle and greco roman) teams to these two events — Dave Schultz in Colarado Springs from January 30 to February 1 and Pelado International in Habana City from February 11 to 15 —after the Sports Authority of India (SAI) politely turned down the WFI’s proposal to grant additional funding.The WFI had been allocated Rs 13 crore as part of its annual spending for 2014-2015 season (March-April) by the SAI but the federation exhausted its entire budget on arranging for grapplers’ foreign exposure trips, paying the salaries of foreign and national coaches, holding the national camps and purchasing latest equipments.The federation had initially planned to send its star grapplers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt along with gold medallists in the National Championships to Colarado Springs next month for a training-cum-competition programme to prepare the Indian contingent for an all-important Olympic Qualifier ahead but lack of funds and government support put paid to the hopes of the WFI.“We have approached the Sports Ministry to grant us additional funding from the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF). We have submitted a proposal to the Ministry after holding talks with their senior officials on Friday. We are hopeful of a positive response as the exposure trip and the two championships ahead are of utmost importance to our grapplers. A good showing in these two tournaments will set the tone for the Olympic qualifying events,” WFI secretary general, Raj Singh, told The Tribune.“Sending our wrestlers on our own is not an option as we cannot afford to spend lakhs. Sushil and Yogeshwar have a long list of sponsors who are ready to bear their expenses, but what about the other grapplers. They solely depend on the ministry grant given to the federation. Our participation has been confirmed and we don’t want our wrestlers to suffer,” Singh added.