Wrestling: World body takes away Junior Asian C'ships from India

Diplomatic tensions with Pakistan have now led to stern action being taken from the World Wrestling body- the global body in charge for the sport of Wrestling. They have now announced that India would no longer be hosting the Junior Asian Championshps scheduled to be held in July. Recently, United World Wrestling (UWW) had urged all its national affialiates to not deal with the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) unless the country can assure non-discimination against athletes of any country. India had agreed the host the event after original hosts Lebanon declined and withdrew. The tensions within Indian federations and world bodies started after India refused to issue visas to a three-member shooting contingent for the World Cup held in Delhi in the last week of February. "UWW has told that it has shifted the Junior Asian Championship from India to Thailand. We had not bid for this event and we had chipped in just to oblige UWW-Asia but we will certainly encounter problems when we would want to host major tournaments next year," WFI Assistant Secretary was quoted as saying by PTI. "The government will have to do something about it (the visa issue). But, it's highly unlikely that something can be done before the elections," Tomar added. According to reports, the WFI had attempted to let the event remain in India and had sent a request to the Sports Ministry to look into the same but before the Sports Ministry could act upon it, UWW decided to shift the venue. Also speaking to PTI, WFI President BB Sharan Singh said, "Everybody is busy with Election preparations," indicating that the matter could only be resolved after polls. The fate of the upcoming Davis Cup clash between India and Pakistan is also uncertain and remains to be seen. The fate of whether or not the Indian team will be allowed to travel to Pakistan will depend on the new government.