India's ace wrestler Sakshi Malik joined the voices on Thursday, July 20, to showcase her strong criticism towards the government's decision of granting exemption from Asian Games 2023 trials to Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia. She also revealed that she received the same offer from the government but she refused it.
The 30-year-old Olympic medalist was a prominent figure during the wrestlers' protest against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. She was an active voice against the federation and was spotted in various protests alongside Vinesh and Bajarang.
WFI's ad-hoc panel committee added further split in the wrestling community when they granted exemption from Hangzhou Asian Games trials to Vinesh and Bajarang. Both the star wrestlers will be participating in their respective category events without any trials and that has angered the rest of the wrestling community, including Sakshi.
Sakshi shared strong words on her Twitter handle and slammed the government for 'bringing defamation on wrestlers'. "The government has done the work of breaking the unity of the wrestlers by sending their names directly to the Asian Games. I have never gone to play without trial nor do I support it. I am disturbed by this intention of the government. We had talked about extending the date of trials, but the government has put this defamation in our pocket," Sakshi wrote in her Tweet.
Sakshi also added that she and other protesting wrestlers demanded an extension in the trial date so that they can train. Sakshi revealed that the government offered them a chance for direct entry in Asian Games but she refused because she wanted fair trials.
"We had demanded time from the Ad Hoc committee so that our trials are conducted after August 10 because we were unable to train. Accordingly, they sent a letter giving us time. This is the reason we came out for the training. However, I got a call from the govt saying that they are forwarding the name of both of them (Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat) directly for the Asian Games and asked me to send a mail so that my name could also be forwarded. I refused as I did not want a direct entry. I haven't been to any tournament without the trials neither will I ever do so in future," Sakshi told ANI.
