Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has temporarily banned...

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has temporarily banned Indian participation in all international sports competitions except cricket after the country’s poor performance in the Seoul Asian Games, where India’s more than 400 participating athletes won only five gold medals, four of them by sprinter P.T. Usha.

The government recently refused to permit a wrestling team to visit Pakistan and a table tennis team to participate in an international tournament. The ban does not cover cricket, in which India is the reigning world champion.