The Sports ministry has confirmed 325-member Indian contingent for the 2018 Commonwealth Games to be held at Gold Coast City in Australia from April 4-15. The team comprises 221 athletes, 58 coaches, 17 doctors and physiotherapists, seven managers and 22 other officials. athletics and shooting has the maximum representation with 31 and 27 participants respectively, while weightlifting and wrestling will see 16 and 12 contenders. Ten shuttlers will vie for supremacy at the quadrennial event, comprising the likes of World No. 2 Kidambi Srikanth and No. 3 PV Sindhu (who will be India's flag bearer at the opening ceremony).
Earlier, the presence of 'extra officials' in the contingent had become a major flashpoint between the sports ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). The IOA said that Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore had assured it to have a re-look at government's policy of not clearing 'extra officials' for the CWG. This assurance came after the IOA President Narinder Batra slammed the ministry for raising "unnecessary issues" about the contingent, asking it to apply the same standards of probity for its own bureaucrats.
