Ministry takes the cue

A 13-member Indian cue sports squad will depart for the Asian Indoor Games in Incheon, South Korea on June 27.

The participation of the cue sports contingent for the June 29-July 6 bash appeared somewhat troubled after the Olympic Council of Asia announced that Indians would be participating under their banner since the Indian Olympic Association is currently suspended by the International Olympic Committe. The OCA move also led to IOA stating that most participating athletes would have to bear their own expenses. However, that deadlock has been broken now and the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India confirmed that the Ministry will bear the cost of participation.

“We are going to participate in the event and there are no doubts about that,” said BSFI secretary S Balasubramaniam. “The team may depart in two batches because for some the events start only on July 2. A call on that will be taken tomorrow.”

The squad: Aditya Mehta, Alok Kumar, Sundeep Gulati, B Bhaskar, Sourav Kothari, Shahbaaz Adil Khan, Brijesh Damani, Divya Sharma, Kamal Chawla, Chitra Magimairaj, Neena Praveen, Indira Gowda, Keerath Bhandal. Manager: Bholu Mehta. Coaches: Manoj Kothari, K Ranjan.