Wrestlers' protest: Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and other stars to skip 2023's first international tournament

With the wrestlers' protest against their federation (WFI) entering the third day, star grappler Bajrang Punia has confirmed that all the senior wrestlers participating in the protest will skip the first international tournament of the season in Croatia.

As of Friday, just 10 days are left for the Zagreb Open Ranking Series to start in the Croatian capital on February 1. The national camp for the same was to start this week in Lucknow (for women) and Sonepat (for men). The camp for the women was already called off by Sports Authority of India on the direction of the sports ministry while the men's camp is on as scheduled.

However, the elite names such as Bajrang Punia, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Deepak Punia among a host of others are missing from the camp due to the ongoing protest, and Bajrang on Friday confirmed that the senior wrestlers are not going to compete in Zagreb.

"The senior wrestlers won't participate in the Ranking Series next month as we need to fight our battle at home first," said Bajrang. "We are not stopping the junior wrestlers, they must continue their preparations, we senior wrestlers will fight for their future here."

The major women wrestlers staging the protest includes Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Anshu Malik, Sonam Malik, and Sarita Mor among others.

Importance of Zagreb Open Ranking Series

The Ranking Series, which has four competitions in the calendar year, is pivotal in improving wrestlers' ranking in their respective weight categories in a year. The ranking will help in determining seeds at the World Wrestling Championships later this year in Serbia in September. The World Championships, deemed as the toughest tournament in the amateur wrestling world, has further importance as it is also an Olympic qualification tournament in relevant weight categories.

Bajrang said they eagerly want the protest to end as soon as possible with WFI's disbandment, including the resignation of Brij Bhushan Charan Singh. but they don't know how long this protest will continue.

"We want to return to training ourselves as this is an important year with Asian Games and Olympics approaching but we don't know how long this will continue and we are not leaving until our grievances are heard and taken care of," said Bajrang.