The comeback dream of China's star diver Tian Liang dimmed as China's leading swimming officials said the recent "pardon moves" which happened in tennis and basketball, will not be seen in diving national team.

Tian, the 2000 and 2004 Olympic champion, was once again denied when team officials refused to let him return to the national team during a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

"There is no similarity between diving and other sports," said Li Hua, director of China's Swimming Administrative Centre (SAC). "Every sports team has its own way to solve problems and you can not mix them up at any time."

A possible project, which is called "pardon project" by local media, has emerged in China's sports field since 2005.

It is believed to bring back the "trouble making" famous athletes to the field for a strongest ever line-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Local media reported that the National General Sports Administration is said to enact such project after its head Liu Peng's visit to Shaanxi Province to watch Tian's training last December when he said: "No matter who they are, if athletes can add to the 2008 Olympics, then bygones will be bygones and they will be welcomed back."

In Feburury, Li Yuanwei, director of the China Basketball Administration Centre, met China's 2.16 metre forward-centre Wang Zhizhi for his possible return during the NBA All-star weekend in the US and the Tennis Administrative Centre recruited maverick player Peng Shuai to the national team last November. Both athletes refused to play for national teams.

But Li denied the project's existence.

"As far as I know, the so-called "pardon project" is not official," he said.

Zhou Jihong, China's national diving team manager, echoed Li's point of view, saying the SAC will not call back Tian.

"We don't have any plan to recall Tian to the national side right now," she said.

"For breaking the the rules of SAC, it's clear that he is only a member of Shaanxi provicial team and is not able to come back to the national team."

According to Zhou, Zhang Ting, Tian's coach as well as a leading official of Shaanxi Sports Bureau, visited the SAC in January, but no substantial progress has been made on the issue.

The bureau has been lobbying the SAC to recall Tian, who was appointed as its senior official last September.

The 27-year-old Tian, the Olympic gold medallist in 10-metre platform in Sydney Games in 2000 and the synchronized platform in Athens in 2004, has been expelled from China's national team for taking too many commercial activities and allegedly refused to come back to the team after the Athens Olympics.

After a convincing victory at the individual platform event at the Tenth National Games in 2005, when he outclassed the Athens Olympic gold winner Hu Jia, the voice of recalling Tian has becoming louder and louder among fans and media who suspect there are personal run-ins between Tian and SAC.

"For sure there is no hatred between us and he is definitely not a victim or somebody like that," Zhou said.

"As a high-profile athlete, he must put national duties above personal interests but he did not do enough to behave himself and he had some bad influences on society and on our team's preparations for the 2008 Olympics.

"We would not take him differently just because he is an Olympic champion."

Tian frequently joined in dozens of business endeavours, including product endorsements and public appearances after the Athens Games.

That triggered tension between Tian and SAC who claimed part of these business activities were not approved by relevant sports organizations.

According to SAC's regulation, any business endeavours profitable to the athletes must get approvals..

What makes things worse is that Tian then failed to return on time when the national team called back its divers for winter training camp in November in 2004 after the team's two-month break.

"Tian broke the rules and he should be responsible for his misbehaviour," Zhou said.

(China Daily March 16, 2006)