Click to play videoNew Delhi: The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is doing its best to shoot itself in the foot according to top shooters of the country.
NRAI has excluded Ronjan Sodhi from the double trap team for the Commonwealth Championships in Delhi in February.
Ronjan is one of the best in the world in that event but the NRAI says it has followed the rules.
"I can understand that Commonwealth Championship will affect you. We have to go by the criteria we have fixed. Changing of criteria was not in our hands. Someone whom we have selected and then if he does not go then he might go the court," says NRAI General Secretary Baljit Singh Sethi.
CNN-IBN has an exclusive copy of a letter written by seven top shooters including Rajyavardhan Rathore and Ronjan who pulled out of the selection trials complaining that the new shooting range in Patialia was not up to the mark.
The NRAI though has brushed it aside and says the players chickened out.
"We have checked and our technical officers were there. We have got a report from them which says that it is not as they say. They were not doing well so they have withdrawn," claims Sethi.
CNN-IBN has also learnt that the government observer in the selection committee has recommended a retrial.
Moreover, Beijing Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, too, hasn't been considered for selection which seems to be a fallout of an ongoing feud between him and the association since the 2008 Games.
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