The selection of the Indian Boxing Team for the Asian Championship has come under the scanner as Jyoti Gulia and Neeraj Phogat have alleged favouritism and manipulation in the evaluation process to choose the players. The Asian Championship will take place from March 28 to April 11 in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.
According to a report by The Times of India, Gulia and Phogat missed out on the team set to travel to Ulaanbaatar as they failed a month-long evaluation test conducted by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI). Instead of holding an open selection trial for boxers, the federation opted to take a performance-based assessment process, according to which coaches and BFI officials have the final say. While Jyoti stood third in the rankings in the 51 KG category, while Phogat was found to be outside the ranking bracket in the 65 KG section.
Neeraj wrote to the Sports Authority of India (SAI), claiming there is evident favouritism and called for an impartial inquiry. Below is the letter accessed by TOI:
“While certain procedures may appear compliant with BFI guidelines on paper, in practice, there is evident favouritism, manipulation, and misuse of authority. Policies are being drafted and implemented in a manner that disproportionately benefits certain preferred boxers, particularly from the Services team, thereby compromising transparency and fairness in the selection process. I request your office to order a thorough and impartial inquiry into the above-mentioned irregularities; constitute a high-level independent committee to investigate the selection procedures and review and revoke the current evaluation process and reinstate transparent open trials.”
Gulia expressed her grievance to Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) CEO N.S Johal, suggesting that they must bring back the competition trials in a letter, accessed by TOI:
“During the competition trials, I convincingly outperformed my opponents with a clear margin (approximately 15–20 points), which can be objectively verified through the official video recordings. Despite these performances, I was placed at Rank 3 in my weight category. This outcome has caused me serious concern, as it does not appear to reflect the performance demonstrated during both the assessment tests and the trial bouts. In the interest of fairness and justice, I request a thorough and impartial review of my trial videos, assessment scores, and evaluation criteria applied in my case.”
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