The Hindu : Sport : OCA meeting to debate on trimming Asian Games

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 26, 2005

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

OCA meeting to debate on trimming Asian Games

Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI: The ever-expanding Asian Games is set to trim its flab. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has taken a cue from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which in its 117th session in Singapore early this month, dropped baseball and softball from its 2012 Olympic programme.

Judging by the outrage that followed after the IOC voted the two events out thereby reducing its programme to 26 disciplines, the OCA, however, is planning a guarded move.

"The OCA will debate in its next meeting how to control the size, cost and complexity of the Asian Games," said its Secretary-General, Randhir Singh.

"There are some sports which could be shifted to the newly launched Indoor Asian Games. This will also help in strengthening the new Games," said Mr. Randhir Singh. The inaugural Indoor Asian Games, with nine disciplines including aerobics, dance sports, extreme sports and futsal, will be staged in Bangkok from November 12 to 19.

The 2006 Doha Asian Games will be the biggest both in terms of number of sports and participation. There will be 39 sports on schedule after chess and triathlon got added to the itinerary of 2002 Busan Games.

"Managing such a huge Games is not an easy job. Going by the number of athletes and officials participating, it would be as big as Olympics but we are ready," said Ahmed Al-Khulaifi, Deputy Director General of the Doha Asian Games Organising Committee (DAGOC).

Mr. Khulaifi is leading a DAGOC team, which is on its media tour of South Asia. On its visit to New Delhi on Monday, Khulaifi said that he regretted that the DAGOC had to drop cricket from the schedule as the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) refused to commit top teams for the Games.

In 2004, the OCA, with much fanfare, had announced the inclusion of cricket in the Asian Games, but early this year dropped it from the Doha itinerary.

"The cricket bodies were insisting on under-19 teams and though we were interested the OCA decided to leave cricket out," said Mr. Khulaifi.

In the backdrop of the spurt of bombings across the continents — the attack on London tube a day after the British capital was chosen to host the 2012 Olympics triggering the worst fears — Mr. Khulaifi said that security would be one of the high-priority areas for the DAGOC.

"We have contracted an international security consultancy firm which would work very closely with the Qatari forces," said Khulaifi considering that Doha is the U.S. headquarters for the American military operations in the region.

The 2.8 billion dollar Doha Games will be held from December 1 to 15, 2006.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport