There is a fear that the Incheon Asian Games will be a gold medal drought for India. As the country's gold medal hopes rest on a very limited number of sports, and three of these which fetch a sure-shot gold may not be included in the 2014 games in the Republic of Korea.
The sports in danger of losing out are cue sports, in which India won two gold medals at Doha in 2006 and one in Guangzhou, and chess, which yielded two gold medals for India at the previous games.
There is a sword hanging over India's pet event, kabaddi as well. Since kabaddi was introduced to the Asian Games in 1990, India has won the gold each time. These sports came under threat because the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has decided to reduce the number of sports from 42 sports to 35 at the next Asiad, which means there is space for only seven non-Olympic sports.
Highly-placed sources in the OCA said that the Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee backed kabaddi but the insistence of OCA President Sheikh Ahmed Al Fayad Al Sabah to keep cricket and karate has forced them to drop two sports from their preferred list of seven - softball, baseball, wushu, squash, kabaddi, sepaktakraw and ten pin bowling. The fate of these sports will be decided on the OCA meeting next month. Compared to 28 sports at the Olympics, the Guangzhou Asian Games has 42.
Incheon was dead against including cricket. But thanks to the support of OCA president, the board endorsed the decision to have cricket and karate in their meeting on Monday.
- Daily News & Analysis (INDIA)
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