Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar and chess wizard Viswanathan Anand have been excluded from the advisory panel AICS which was formed by Narendra Modi government. For those not in the know the panel was formed to deliberate on matters relating to the development of sports in the country. Meanwhile, cricketers Harbhajan Singh, and Krishnamachari Srikkanth have been included in the panel as its new members. The AICS was formed in 2015 during the tenure of then sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Tendulkar was drafted in the committee as Rajya Sabha MP along with Anand. The committee's original strength size has also been pruned down from 27 members to 18 in its second term.
According to sources, the names of Tendulkar and Anand weren't considered as the two attended just a couple of meetings of the committee. In case of Gopichand, it is been understood that Indian shuttlers Tokyo Olympics preparations were keeping him busy with little time to attend the AICS proceedings. Some of the new members who have been included in the committee are Limba Ram (archery) Bachendri Pal (mountaineering), Deepa Malik (para-athlete), Anjali Bhagwat (shooting) Renedy Singh (football) and Yogeshwar Dutt (wrestling)