IMG projects face rough weather

HYDERABAD: Will sports be the same in Andhra Pradesh? Is the question uppermost in the minds of the sports fraternity in the state after the fall of Chandra Babu Naidu''s government here on Tuesday.
For, one of the major achievements of the Naidu government was to put Andhra Pradesh on the international sports map. From raising the budgetary allocation for sports from a mere Rs 5 crore to Rs 30 crore, creating international standard infrastructure, bringing major events like the athletics Grand Prix, WTA and ITF tennis tournaments, to conducting the first-ever Afro-Asian Games, Naidu has converted Hyderabad into the sports capital of the country.
This transformation has seen a number of national heroes emerge from the state in the last five years. But now, his ouster raises doubts if the Congress government will have the same commitment to sports.
Maybe these fears are misplaced and for all you know the Congress government could go a step further to promote sports in a bigger way. It is, of course, too premature to conclude that sports will cease to be on the priority list of the Congress government.
But one thing is sure. Naidu''s two dream projects __ setting up of international sports training academies in collaboration with the International Management Group (IMG) and bringing Formula One to Hyderabad __ which he pursued relentlessly towards the end of his nine-year reign, are bound to run into rough weather.
Formula One appeared to have gone out of Naidu''s pocket much before he went to the hustings. In case it didn''t, the new government will ensure that Formula One is dropped from the government''s plans once for all because they had vehemently opposed the project from the opposition benches.
But the general feeling is that the new government may not be able to do much as regards the agreement with IMG regardless of the stance they had taken against the project. It is felt that by entering to a long term agreement (about 100 years), Naidu has ensured that the agreement is binding on successive governments no matter what kind of political upheavals the state could experience.
But Chandana Khan, principal secretary to government (sports), feels that the scenario is not as simple. "It is too premature to say anything about the future of IMG project. We have to put the proposal afresh in front of the new government and it is up to them to decide," she said.
Perhaps, this is a hint that the agreement is not binding on the new government and that it can rescind the contract if it wants to.
Be that as it may, an average sports lover does not look at what the IMG will do to improve the standard of sports in the state. For him, what is important is whether the state will remain a sports power in the country and that it''s image as a major destination remains intact.