Crucial IOC meeting to begin process for India's Oly return

Armed with a concrete action plan, India's sports administrators will hold a crucial meeting with the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne tomorrow to draw a roadmap for the country's return to the Olympic fold.
The meeting assumes great importance for India's sporting future as it would be the first time that IOC and IOA sit down for discussion, a good five months after the country was suspended for failing to adhere to the Olympic charter.
While the delegates are optimistic of a favourable outcome, some other sports administrators are not too hopeful of any fruitful result from the meeting, pointing out that the IOA was still not united on many issues.

The run-up to the meeting has already been marred by the dramatic pullout of IOA Acting President V K Malhotra and IOC Member in India, Randhir Singh.
The two decided to boycott the meeting after the IOC agreed to include Hockey India General Secretary Narinder Batra and Jharkhand Olympic Association R K Anand in the IOA delegation for the meeting, in addition to the four-member list submitted earlier.
The meeting will also be attended by Sports Minister Jitendra Singh, Sports Secretary P K Deb, Beijing Olympics gold-medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra and Olympian sailor Malav Shroff.

Randhir's absence will, however, have a major impact since he has significant clout in the power corridors of the IOC.

On the eve of the meeting, the Sports Ministry's role in trying to create a quick patchwork with the suspended IOA officials has also come under the scanner.
Clean Sports India, a movement for corruption-free sports in the country, has alleged that Sports Secretary P K Deb is "hand in gloves" with suspended IOA officials like Abhay Singh Chautala and Lalit Bhanot and has raised questions about the meetings that they had.