The state hasn’t spent a dime on the training of the six Malayali athletes at the Olympics, but it has sanctioned the London tour of a three-member delegation headed by sports minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar, for a view of the Olympic city.
The team also comprising sports council president and former Olympian Padmini Thomas and sports secretary M. Shivashankar will leave for their week-long tour on Saturday.
The finance department approved the trip after the sports ministry pruned down the delegation, which initially comprised more non-sporting members. It is learnt that this tour will cost the exchequer over ` 6 lakh.
The irony is that none of the ‘tourists’ have the slightest of idea about what they intend to do with the government money in London.
Questioned, Shiva-shankar was furious. “We are certainly not going to sleep,” he fumed. “We will visit some of the venues where Indians are competing and the rest will be decided in the course of the visit. There is no need to explain everything now; a report will be filed later.”
The minister’s explanation was, “We plan to study how the preparations are held for the Games and how they prepare their athletes for big events.” The sports council president smiled and repeated th minister's words.
But, if a study was the aim, shouldn’t the tour gro-up have a panel of experts? What is an official tour without a proper agenda?
Apparently the state had sponsored a similar tour for the 2008 Olympics, which was attended by then sports council president T.P. Dasan and joint secretary K. Thankappan.