World Championship bronze-medallist Bajrang Kumar has been left "heartbroken" after the SAI refused to bear his expenses for the Dave Schultz Memorial International tournament in Colorado Springs, saying the grappler can travel to the USA "at no cost to government".
The last-minute refusal by the Sports Authority of India to sanction Bajrang's travel, boarding and lodging expenses for the fortnight long training-cum-competition programme has robbed the promising grappler a chance to compete against the world's best under a new weight category, keeping Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Championships in mind this year.
Bajrang got the shocking news from his federation hours before leaving for the airport to join his other teammates, who flew by an early morning (2am) flight today to the USA accompanied by chief national coach Vinod Kumar.
The squad comprises Amit Kumar Dahiya, Sandeep Tomar, Rahul Aware, Amit Dhankhar, Praveen Rana, Pawan Kumar, Satyavrat Kadian and Rohit Patel for the January 30 to February 1 tournament and Bajrang's name was there in the first list.
When contacted, Bajrang was reluctant to speak on the matter as the talks between Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and SAI officials were still on to send the grappler to the USA.
It has been reliably learnt that SAI secretary Neeraj Kansal has written a letter to the DG Jiji Thomson to consider his case under "special circumstances" and a separate meeting has also taken place between Bajrang's coach Yashvir Singh and Thomson.
"I came to know from the federation that I won't be travelling to the USA. Everything was ready, my visa and tickets and it was heartbreaking news for me. I don't know what has happened. I have been told by sir (coach Yashvir) that I will be sent to the USA shortly. I want to go there and compete," Bajrang told PTI.
Bajrang's tickets were cancelled last night after WFI got the letter from the SAI.
An official in the know of the development said that WFI had initially drawn a list of 12 grapplers for the US tourney which was later pruned to 10 and finally to eight after SAI refused to bear the cost of wrestlers, who did not participate in the Nationals and Commonwealth Championships last year.
