768-strong contingent: 503 athletes, 246 officials – India at 2026 Asian Games

The Sports Ministry on Wednesday approved a contingent of 246 team officials and coaches for the 503 athletes who will compete in the 20th Asian Games with athletics and cricket getting the largest support staff for the showpiece beginning September 19 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

The Ministry had originally approved 492 athletes in 35 disciplines for the Games but as was expected, a few names have been added mainly in the athletics squad, which has gone up from 73 to 79.

Four surfers have also been approved along with a Mixed Martial Artist.

The newly included names include Praveen Kumar (men's hammer throw), Harita Bhadra (women's 200m), Kiran Pahal (women's 400m), Asha Ilango (women's triple jump), Sindhushree Ganesha (women's pole vault), Sanya Yadav (women's discus throw), Varun Sanyal (men's traditional -77kg MMA), Kishore Kumar (men's shortboard), Sivaraj Babu (men's shortboard), Kamali Prakash (women's shortboard), and Sugar Shanti Gayen (women's shortboard).

India's total contingent strength now stands at 768, including 19 contingent staff such as chef de mission Sahdev Yadav and chief medical officer Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala.

The athletics contingent, which would be without injured javelin throw superstar Neeraj Chopra, has got the largest support staff of 31 members, including 20 coaches led by national coach P Radhakrishnan.

Interestingly despite Chopra's withdrawal, his coach Jai Chaudhary and physio Ishaan Marwaha feature in the support staff list alongside James Hillier, the Athletics Director and Head Coach of the Reliance Foundation who is closely associated with sprinter Gurindervir Singh.

The men's and women's cricket teams, which would be eyeing second successive gold medals at the showpiece, have been sanctioned a support staff of 20 spearheaded by VVS Laxman for men and Amol Muzumdar for women.

In fact, the two squads have been given the entire support staff that usually accompanies them including cricket operations officer Maroof Fajandar, who has been named as the Team Leader.

The 40-member hockey group, featuring the men's and women's teams, has been granted a support staff of 14, including six coaches, and three physiotherapists.

The shooting contingent led by double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker will be assisted by a support staff of 17, of which 11 are coaches, including High Performance Director Pierre Beauchamp, trap coach Peter Wilson and pistol ace Samaresh Jung.

The table tennis coaching group includes Soumyadeep Roy, who was removed after the Tokyo Olympics following allegations of match-fixing by him that were levelled by top player Manika Batra.

The Mirabai Chanu-spearheaded weightlifting contingent will be guided as usual by national coach Vijay Kumar.

The boxing contingent of 11 will be accompanied by a support staff of eight and the list features expected names such as women's High Performance Director Santiago Nieva and men's chief coach C A Kuttappa.

For the 20-member badminton squad, national coach Pullela Gopichand will be travelling along with foreign coaches Irwansyah of Indonesia and Tan Kim Her of Malaysia.

(With inputs from PTI)