Subrata Dey, Chef-de-Mission of Bengal in the recently concluded Khelo India Youth Games in Bihar, is likely to highlight the injustice faced by state players, especially in the Yoga event, in his report to the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
Simultaneously, Dey has planned also to submit the report to the Bengal Olympic Association (BOA), trying to make the parent body aware of the poor performance by Bengal in the Youth Games which took place from 4th to 15th May. Bengal which fielded 166 participants in the Youth Games acquired only 15 medals.
Dey however revealed, “We submitted eight protests in Yoga. But none of our protests were accepted by the judges. Even, on a few occasions in Yoga we noticed that the final listing was made where our participant placed within the top three. But at the time of the announcement, the same participant was seen being placed at seventh or eighth!”
According to the Chef-de-Mission, Bengal boys were equally deprived of justice in football. “During our match against Odisha, the boys were randomly heckled by opposition footballers. The referee overlooked all those fouls. In our last group league match against Meghalaya, the referee did the same thing. We were forced to crash out of the competition by the biased referring where two of our footballers were sent off despite the fact that they made no major offense,” mentioned Dey.
But at the same time, Dey observed the lack of determination among the participants in a few more disciplines as he said, “We could have had a few more medals in some disciplines. I want to submit the report to BOA also. I feel the performance is alarming at the youth level. If we fail to perform in the youth stage then we will fade out at the senior level. Youth is the age when one should be nourished properly so that he or she can excel at the senior level. I want to make the association aware of the fact.”
Dey however heaped a lot of praise on the infrastructure the Bihar government constructed for the Youth Games.
