NEW DELHI: There will be no presence of ‘extra officials’ in the Hangzhou-bound Asian Games delegation of coaches and support staff for Indian athletes after the sports ministry refused to clear any of the proposed names in 38 sports disciplines in which country’s 634 athletes will be participating at the September 23-October 8 continental meet.
For the previous edition of the Games in Jakarta in 2018, a huge number of 58 extra officials had accompanied the contingent, generating a lot of controversy back then. The presence of extra officials in any multisport-bound Indian contingent has always been a major flashpoint between the ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), with athletes’ family members and relatives or association officials and those favoured by them accompanying the contingents.
TOI has accessed the list of coaches and support staff finalised for the Asiad and there are no extra officials named. The ministry has also effectively ruled out the role of team managers, drastically cutting down the number of such officials.
Only seven team managers have been cleared by the ministry, as compared to 26 who had accompanied the contingent to the Jakarta Asiad. Those sanctioned at cost-to-the-government basis include Vijay Narayan Singh (cycling), Maj Gen (retd) Bibhuti Bhushan (golf), Ravindra Banshtu (volleyball), Nirali Rajesh Thakkar and Velu Dhayala mani (football). The other two names – Shankar Govindraj (chess) and Yash Bhalawala (esports) – will travel at their own expense.
The ministry has emphasised on the need to have more physiotherapists, foreign coaches, high-performance directors (HPDs) and, in a first, a mental trainer – Anthony Upton in hockey – travelling with the athletes. In Jakarta, no foreign coach, HPD, psychologist or scientific advisor had travelled with the contingent.
This time, a total of 39 physiotherapists, along with 14 foreign coaches, three HPDs and an equal number of psychologists, two scientific advisors and technical analyst each will be travelling with Team India. Similarly, a total of 134 coaches will be part of the contingent, as compared to 122 who had travelled to Jakarta.
In equestrian sport, for the first time, a record number of 11 grooms have been cleared to accompany the squad, when there were none for Jakarta. A total of 260 coaches and support staff have been cleared at government’s cost, with athletics having the highest number of such experts at 26, followed by 16 each in hockey, equestrian and cricket, 14 in esports, 13 in sport climbing and 10 each in badminton, shooting and sailing.
