International Olympic Committee 'astonished' by Indian Olympic Committee management

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is reportedly "astonished" at the refusal of the India Olympic Association (IOA) to clarify issues over its presidency.

According to a report in Indian media, the IOC set a deadline of 25th September for the IOA to explicitly state the status of Suresh Kalmadi, who left the IOA following corruption charges related to awarding illegal contracts to a Swiss firm for Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

However, he has seemingly refused to relinquish authority to acting President V.K. Malhotra.

Malhotra apparently informed the IOC earlier this month that a decision to send an observer to monitor presidential elections was unwelcome.

The Press Tribune of India quoted a letter from Pere Miro, the IOC's head of National Olympic Committee (NOC) relations that read "the IOC and OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) are extremely astonished by the content of your letter and by the fact that you do not seem to understand that the internal situation of your NOC is not as smooth and normal as you want to depict it.

"Should we remind you that, despite our numerous and repeated requests, you and your NOC were unable to take any clear decision vis-a-vis situation of Mr Kalmadi with much confusion surrounding the status, powers and decisions of your NOC Ethics Commission in this affair.

"We urge you once again to respond transparently and openly to all the questions which we have raised in our previous communications. If we do not receive any clear and satisfactory answers within a deadline of one week maximum, we will immediately produce a report for the IOC Executive Board for appropriate action."

The IOC Executive could suspend India from the Olympics if it feels it does not receive an appropriate answer.