South Asian Games to begin tomorrow after several rounds of delay; India favourites

Postponed several times due to a variety of reasons, the much-delayed but the biggest South Asian Games ever begin in Guwahati on Friday with hosts India expected to stamp their superiority in the regional spectacle.

The 12-day Games, featuring 2,500 athletes from eight SAARC countries, will be declared open by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a glittering inaugural ceremony at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium on Friday.

The multi-sporting event, being held under the aegis of South Asian Olympics Council, is happening after a delay of four years. The 12th edition of the Games was to be held in 2012 in New Delhi but was postponed due to Assembly elections in the national capital.

After that, the Indian Olympic Association was suspended by the International Olympic Committee between December 2012 and February 2014, leading to further delay. After the IOA's suspension was revoked by the IOC, Kerala was tipped to host the Games but the event was handed to Guwahati and Shillong last year before another round of postponement.

The two cities thus got the opportunity to host India's third South Asian Games -- after Kolkata (1987) and Chennai (1995) -- and the biggest sporting spectacle ever in the North Eastern part of the country. But, just a day before the opening ceremony, the organisers suffered a jolt when basketball was derecognised from the Games by the sport's world body FIBA.

Participating countries have been told not to take part in the discipline which is scheduled to be held here from February 11-16. FIBA took the decision on account of the interference by the government and Indian Olympic Association in the conduct of the discipline in the Games.

Though nearly a week is there for the start of the discipline at the Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Stadium here, a red- faced organising committee is still hoping that a way out will be found in the next few days and the sport will go ahead.

FIBA recognises a faction of the Basketball Federation of India while the IOA recognises another. The IOA had selected Indian players to take part in the Games while the FIBA- recognised faction had also done the same.

Bangladesh capital Dhaka had hosted the last edition in 2010 and India had run away with a tally of a whopping 175 medals out of 528 on offer, including 90 gold out of 157, to hold on to regional superpower status.

Pakistan had finished a distant second with 80 medals, including 19 gold, in the Games competed among countries considered minnows in Olympic sports at the global stage despite being over 20 per cent of the global population.

Nearly 2000 athletes competed in Dhaka in 23 disciplines and 157 events while the Games at Guwahati and Shillong will have 23 disciplines and 228 events, thus making this edition the biggest ever.

There will be 228 gold, 228 silver and 308 bronze medals on offer this time. The two North Eastern cities will play host to 3,333 athletes and officials, according to the latest figures.

Significantly, there will be an equal number of disciplines for men and women, the first time in the Games history, thereby giving the event the epithet of 'Gender Equal Games'.

India, who had topped the medals tally in all the previous editions, will understandably have the largest number of participants with 521 athletes (245 women), while Nepal and Bangladesh have sent 381 and 370 respectively.

Pakistan, who initially had some reservations in taking part in the Games citing security concerns, have sent 346 athletes. With a host of dignitaries set to take part during the opening ceremony and some of the participating countries sending central ministers as their contingent heads, security has been beefed up in Guwahati and Shillong.

The central government has given Assam and Meghalaya government Rs 60 crore and Rs seven crore respectively for just the security arrangements. The total budget of the Games, according to estimates, has shot up to over Rs 150 crore, excluding the security allocation.

The Organising Committee, headed by Union Sports Minister and Member of Lok Sabha from Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, will have to take extra care of the participating athletes as they are not staying at an Athletes Village together but at various hotels in the city.

Guwahati will host 16 disciplines -- Athletics, Basketball, Cycling, Football, Handball, Hockey, Kabaddi, Kho -Kho, Shooting, Squash, Swimming, Tennis, Triathlon, Volleyball, Weightlifting and Wrestling -- and men's football across 10 venues.

Shillong, on the other hand, will see competition in six disciplines -- Archery, Badminton, Boxing, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo and Wushu -- and women's football at seven venues.

India are fielding some of their top athletes, including the likes of Olympic medallists boxer M C Mary Kom and shooter Gagan Narang. Another Olympic medallist, shuttler Saina Nehwal's participation is though uncertain.

India are expected to dominate more than a dozen disciplines with most of their medals likely to come from archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. The hosts country is also expected to dominate in cycling, judo and wushu. 

Pakistan, who finished second behind India seven times, have been hit hard by lack of preparations as their Olympic body has just completed its elections after a long factional feud and Sri Lanka may give them a big fight for the second position.

There is a big gap between India and other South Asian countries in archery, badminton, boxing, shooting and wrestling that the host nation is expected to have a clean sweep in many events of these disciplines.

In archery, badminton and boxing, India has named full strength teams while shooting and wrestling will also feature some top players from the host country.

In men's hockey, Pakistan will seek a hat-trick of titles after winning the last two editions. Pakistan have sent a balanced team of seniors and juniors while India will field a relatively inexperienced side as Hockey India League is still on, making some top players unavailable.

But it's difficult to predict which of the two will win the gold. The two countries are playing for the first time after the infamous Champions Trophy match in Bhubaneswar which was marred by Pakistani players' unruly behaviour after the game.

In women's hockey, India are the favourites to win the gold. The eves are on a high, having qualified for the Olympics for the first time in 36 years.
India had also won a gold in both the men and women's kabaddi events but here also, it is difficult to predict a gold winner as Pakistan can upstage the hosts. They are coming here after a series with Iran.

Pakistan, who will be featuring in 21 sports disciplines, may do well in wushu, weightlifting, judo and taekwondo, kabaddi, handball, squash and volleyball, besides hockey.

Pakistan dominated squash in the last edition but this time, a full-strength India is set to turn the tables while with all the top players like Saurav Ghosal, Harinderpal Singh Sandhu, Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal all in the squad. Afghanistan may continue to rule the roost in taekwondo.

In the run-up to the Games, there were concerns about the venues for hockey and shooting but the organisers have been able to get them ready on time.

The football venue at the Nehru Stadium though continues to be a matter of concern as the pitch doesn't seem ready.

There were also issues related to the badminton venue and at one stage, the organisers had decided to shift the discipline from Shillong to Guwahati after Badminton Association of India expressed reservation about the venue there. Meghalaya had threatened to withdraw from co-hosting the Games on the issue. The event was later reinstated to Shillong which will host some top shuttlers like K Srikanth and PV Sindhu. 

Archery is another big event to be held in Shillong which will see the likes of Deepika Kumari taking part.

But is boxing that could steal the show with top stars Mary Kom and L Sarita Devi -- both from Manipur -- expected to get huge crowd support. The men's event is also expected to be a crowd-puller due to the presence of north-eastern stars such as L Devendro Singh and Shiva Thapa.

In Guwahati, the most sought after event will be the hockey match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan in their group match on February 8. Other than that, the shooting range at Kahilipara will see the likes of Gagan Narang in action. India is expected to get competition from Bangladesh who are traditionally strong in this discipline.

India and Sri Lanka are the two countries which have sent athletes in all the 23 disciplines while Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal are fielding competitors in 22. In multi-medal disciplines of swimming and athletics, India will have some competition from Sri Lanka. For the first time, Pakistan will be fielding three women boxers, a women's kabaddi team and women weightlifters.

Bhutan would be expected to do well in archery and taekwondo. Pakistan were unsure of participating in the wake of Pathankot terrorist attack. That the India-Pakistan cricket series failed to take off last month also added to the uncertainty. India sent a four-member delegation of IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta, Bhubaneswar Kalita, and two sports ministry officials to talk to the Pakistan Sports Board and POA to extend a 'formal invitation'.
In fact, India had sent high level delegates to all the other participating countries for formal invites.

Meanwhile, the opening ceremony on Friday will showcase the Northeast and performers like Zubeen Garg, Angarag Mahanta and Nahid Afrin, first runner-up in Indian Idol Junior, will show their vocal prowess while the renowned Shillong Orchestra will also perform. The ceremony will also emphasise on the oneness of South Asia and waters from eight rivers of the SAARC countries will be mixed at the ceremony.

The waters were brought from Sindhu or Indus (Pakistan), Kabul River (Afghanistan), Kosi (Nepal), Padma (Bangladesh), Mahaweli (Sri Lanka), a lake in Maldives (as there is no river there) and Brahmaputra of the host nation.

Friday will also see the start of two disciplines here -- men's football and volleyball (men's and women's). Shillong will have a separate opening ceremony on Saturday. Badminton, women's football and table tennis (men's and women's) will also begin on Saturday in Shillong.