Two young female boxers selected by BFI official for proposed USA tour without trials

The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) official involvement in facilitating visas to the United States of America (USA) for his family member and two young female boxers has come to light.

The seven-member including two young female boxers were supposed to visit the USA to compete in an invitational women’s boxing tournament in July.

BFI’s deputy director Suhail Pervez was going as a coach with the team, while his wife was named as team manager. Despite repeated efforts, Pervez wasn’t available for his comments on the development.

Hemanta Kumar Kalita, general secretary of the BFI played down the issue of sending two young female boxers without proper trials to the USA by one of the officials of the federation, saying it is an internal matter of the BFI.

“It is an in-house matter and we don’t want to discuss it with the media,” he told Sportskeeda over the phone from Assam.

He added:

“BFI is investigating the matter.”

The incident came to light on June 28 when Andrew Banuet, Boxing Operations Coordinator for USA Boxing in an e-mail to BFI wanted to verify membership of the Indian team visiting USA for the competition scheduled to be held between July 22 to July 24.

Banuet in a communication to BFI wrote: “We have received interest from a few prospective participants from India. If the members listed are in good standing with your federation please confirm as it is required for the registration to our event."

The visa to the USA was denied by the embassy, said one of the two young female boxers whose name was on the proposed team.

“The visa application was rejected by the US embassy and we couldn’t go,” the boxer said on condition of anonymity.

The teenage boxer said she wasn't aware of who the other members of the team were, but she wanted to compete in the US competition to gain experience.

"There was an invitation to compete in the US and I was spending my own money for the tour," she added

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