A three-member Kerala delegation, led by Sports Minister K B Ganeshkumar, will board the flight to London on Saturday on an official visit to study the facilities in place for the 30th Olympic Games.
But the irony is, the touring party has no idea about the schedule of their stay in the megalopolis. Slated to accompany the minister are sports secretary M Sivasankar and Kerala State Sports Council (KSSC) president Padmini Selvan.
Sivasankaran conceded that they were completely in the dark on the events or venues they will be able to visit in London. There is no accreditation either. “We have no idea of our schedule in London. Arrangements are being made and we will come to know of it only when we reach there,” he told Express. The only thing the team does know, for now, is that the trio will return on August 10, two days before the closing ceremony of the quadrennial spectacle.
“The current plan is to leave on August 4 and come back on August 10. The visit is not part of the Indian delegation. We are making our own arrangements,” the sports secretary said.
When asked who is making the arrangements in the British capital, he simply said: “We have spoken to a few acquaintances there. Everything will be ready when we reach there.”
Prodded if there was even a broad idea of the venues or events they would like to witness, Sivasankaran replied in the negative. “Nothing has been decided yet,” he retorted. Padmini Selvan, the 1982 Asian Games 400m bronze medallist, too is unaware of the exact schedule of their travel. “I only know that we are leaving on August 4. The rest of the arrangements are being taken care of by the sports secretary,” she said.
Efforts to reach the Sports Minister proved futile. Meanwhile, former KSSC president T P Dasan said
that it is not the proper way for Kerala’s official delegation to visit a major sporting event. Sources pointed out that the team would visit the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, the venue for athletics which got underway on Friday. The London trip is expected to cost the state more than `5 lakh, sources said.
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