Government to bear cost for billiards players in Asian Indoor Games

The Sports Ministry has cleared the participation of 13 billiards players in the fourth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Incheon, South Korea, beginning June 29 at the government cost, the game's national federation said on Friday.

The government had taken some time to take a decision on whether to foot the bill for the billiards players as they are participating in the event not under the Indian flag but under the Olympic Council of Asia banner as the IOA is serving a ban from the International Olympic Committee since December last.

"The Sports Ministry today gave the clearance that the government will bear the cost for participation of our players in Asian Indoor Games in South Korea. We are relieved," Billiards and Snooker Federation of India secretary S Balasubramaniam told PTI today.

The 13 players are Aditya Mehta, Alok Kumar, Sundeep Gulati, Balachandra Bhaskar, Sourav Kothari, Shahbaaz Adil Khan, Brijesh Damani, Divya Sharma, Kamal Chawla, Chitra Magimairaj, Neena Praveen, Indira Gowda and Keerath Bhandaal.

Bholu Mehta will be the manager while Manoj Kothari and K Ranjan will accompany the squad as coaches. The contingent will depart for Korea on June 27.

Fourteen kabaddi players will also participate in the June 29 to July 6 multi-sport event at the government cost.

Thirty five Indian athletes and 11 officials from four sports have been cleared by the government to participate in the event though eight players -- four chess and four bowling -- will take part in the event at their own cost as the Sports Ministry refused to bear their cost.

All of them will participate in the event under the banner of Olympic Council of India.

The 12-discipline Games have some obscure sports like e-sport, dance sport, kurash, baduk, kickboxing and muay. The others are billiards, bowling, chess, futsal, kabaddi and short course swimming (25m).