New Delhi, June 27: When the Indian wrestling team travels to Canada next week for the Commonwealth Freestyle Wrestling Championships, it could expect almost personal attention from the officials in tow. The 17 wrestlers will be accompanied by 13 support staff — masseurs, doctors, coaches — but most of them have little to do with wrestling and lots to do with string-pulling.

Four have the bonafides, including ex-wrestler Kartar Singh, a Padma Shri awardee who’s also the general secretary of the Wrestling Federation of India and a coach of this team. The CVs of some others:
• Harbir Kaur, masseur of the women’s team, is the wife of Tamil Nadu Wrestling Association secretary Rohtas Singh. Kartar Singh explained her role: ‘‘Woh kabaddi ki tagri khilari thi, massage-wassage to thora bahut kar hi legi’’ (she was a kabaddi player, she’ll be able to do the massage).
• Meena Choudhary, the women’s team manager, ‘‘might be the wife of our vice-president’’, said Kartar, ‘‘I’m not sure who she is’’. The WFI has eight vice-presidents
• Usha Sihag, assistant coach, is an NIS-trained coach, but better known as a judo expert. She reached the camp yesterday after the federation wrote to the Sports Ministry saying original nominee Roshni Devi ‘‘was not interested in going’’ for the meet. Roshni told The Indian Express she’d never said such a thing. The letter says that the change was made on the directions of WFI president M S Malik; he’s also the Haryana DGP, and Sihag is a constable in Haryana Police.



• Prem Nath is travelling as a referee; the role, says Kartar, is to step in if the hosts request so, but he says Nath hasn’t refereed at this level



• The names of men’s masseur Krishan Kumar Dahiya, doctor Raminder Singh, manager Bhupinder Singh (an ASI with Haryana Police) and team leader Harpreet Singh didn’t ring a bell with Kartar. ‘‘I have never seen them, I am in Chandigarh now and the camp is going on in New Delhi so they must be from there’’, he said.



The saving grace is that only 13 officials are going; the first list of players and officials sent to the ministry by the WFI included 28 officials for 26 wrestlers. To make the numbers look smaller, two lists were sent, for A and B teams. The ministry approved the A team but dropped the B. One of those dropped is Harbir Kaur’s husband Rohtas, who’d been named manager of the Men’s B team.



At the IG Stadium here, where the wrestlers have been holding their camp, the names mentioned above again rang few bells. ‘‘These masseurs, managers or team leaders are nothing but political appointees’’, said one Canada-bound wrestler. ‘‘Most of them don’t have any knowledge about the sport and we have to deal with if any problem arises. Our coach acts as masseur, doctor and even manager at times while the others are busy shopping and sightseeing.’’



So who decides which officials go? Kartar wouldn’t answer that directly but, when pressed for background details on the lucky ones, said we should contact Rajinder Gulia, office secretary at the WFI in New Delhi.



That was easier said than done; Gulia could not be contacted through the evening. Neither could Malik; his residence asked us to call on Friday morning.



The list was cleared by Vijay Goel, Minister of State for Sports (senior minister Vikram Verma is out of the country). Goel, who had been unavailable thorugh the afternoon and evening, eventually came on the line late at night and said he would comment on Friday.



WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar, who wrote the letter regarding Sihag and Roshni Devi, said: ‘‘I am just doing what my higher authorities have asked me to do.’’