Aussies rebuff Indian lawn bowls team again

BANGALORE: The Indian lawn bowls federation on Friday called off its Commonwealth Games training programme in Sydney, alleging 'harassment' by the Australian high commission.

Having refused visa to the 19-member Indian team last week after raising doubts about its financial capacity to support its month-long stay in Sydney, the Australian authorities told the Lawn Bowls Federation of India (LBFI) on Friday that they would consider the request if the applications were resubmitted along with fresh visa fees.

That would have meant an additional expenditure of around Rs 1 lakh and going through the cumbersome process once again, which the LBFI was not prepared to do. The Aussies' directive didn't sound logical either as the paperwork and documentation had already been done. And, having faced the ignominy of being refused entry earlier this year to Australia, the federation thought it would rather look for similar training bases in other countries.

The decision was supported by the central government which declared that it would not send any team for training to Australia for the Commonwealth Games.

Rahul Bhatnagar, joint secretary, ministry of sports (International Sports Division), said visa delays and the uncertainty surrounding tours to Australia had upset the training schedule, forcing the ISD to look elsewhere for such facilities.

"The players are dismayed by the outcome, their morale has been affected. We will now see whether we can send them to Malaysia for training. We also had plans to send our rugby and netball teams to Australia. From now on, no team will be sent to that country for training."

Bhatnagar, who is also the chairman of the steering committee in charge of preparing Indian teams for the CWG, pointed out that in his talks with Aussie immigration officials on Wednesday, he had made it clear the entire tour had been funded by the government.

"Out of a total budget of Rs 26 lakh, the team was carrying with it Rs 19 lakh. The players were being accompanied by the coach and manager who were responsible enough to ensure they returned to India after the training stint. Yet they were apprehensive and wanted to check the antecedents of the players and their bank statements."

The modest figures in the bank statements of the players, most of whom are tribals from Jharkhand, and the fear they would stay back in Australia obviously put the immigration officials off.

"They were keen to understand the government's authentication procedure and the funding. We provided all the documents. But today, they wanted the entire process repeated."

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Sports/Events-Tournaments/Commonwealth-Games/Aussies-rebuff-Indian-lawn-bowls-team-again/articleshow/6065898.cms