The Sports Ministry has cleared a 804-member Indian contingent, including 572 athletes, for the Asian Games but said it will bear the expense of 755 members with 49 out of 232 officials allowed at no cost to the government.
The government will bear the cost of 572 athletes, 183 officials, 119 coaches and 21 doctors and physiotherapists and 43 other extra officials.
Out of the 572 athletes cleared to take part in 36 disciplines, 312 are men.
The long protracted process of naming of the Indian contingent and subsequent clearance by the ministry thus came to an end without any major tussle between the government and the IOA, which had submitted its list on Monday.
Athletics, which returned the highest number of medals (13) in the last Asian Games in 2014, has most number of participants (50) and its contingent is the biggest at 75.
Surprisingly, canoe-kayak is second in terms of number of players (49) and number of contingent members (60). Hockey is third with 36 players forming a 51-strong contingent.
Shooting, which had yielded the second highest number of medals (9) in the last edition, will have 28 participants out of 36-strong contingent.
All the six team officials of kurash have been cleared at no cost to government.
Unlike the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games contingent in April, the IOA has not allowed any parents of players to be named as extra officials.
However, badminton stars Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu’s personal physios have been included in the contingent and they have been cleared at government cost. Badminton will go to Jakarta with four physios.
Shooter Heena Sidhu’s husband-cum-coach Ronak Pandit and star gymnast Dipa Karmakar’s personal coach Bishweshwar Nandi have also been cleared at government cost.
