The Sports Authority of India today put on hold Pete Conway's re-appointment as the chief coach of Indian sailing after Olympians and former world champion sailors took strong objection to the Englishman seeking a third term for the top post.
In a meeting with the Yatching Association of India office-bearers Ajay Narang and Abhinav Barve held at the SAI headquarters here, outgoing SAI DG, Gopal Krishna asked the YAI council members to clarify their position on Conway against whom many complaints have been received.
Surprisingly, no one from the Sports Ministry was present in the meeting despite the ministry taking keen interest in the development taking place in the sailing fraternity.
However, when contacted, Sports Secretary Pradeep Kumar Deb told PTI, "Even if we have to appoint Pete Conway as the chief national coach, we will not give him a long term and wait for the YAI to hold fresh elections to its council."
"The proposal to hold fresh elections to YAI council is with the Defence Ministry and they are awaiting their reply. We, on our part, had notified them to hold elections since the council's present term expired in November last year.
"I am not aware of the meeting which took place in SAI. We will take an appropriate decision once anything comes to us," he said.
An official in the knowhow of the development added: "The DG posed many questions to YAI members and asked them to come clean on Conway, whose credibility as a foreign coach has been seriously questioned by Olympians and former world champions.
"Narang's presence in today's meeting was questionable as he is not part of the selection committee," he added.
The disgruntled group, led by Olympian and world champion Farokh Tarapore, had described Conway as one whose "frequent loss of emotional control, foul temper and abusive language" acts against the interests of Indian sailors.
The other prominent signatories to the letter included former world champion Homi Motivala, former world silver medallist G L Yadav and former world champion Nitin Mongia.
