Indian-origin wrestlers part of Aus squad

Four Indian-origin wrestlers, including Sandeep Kumar, are part of Australian national squad, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs M S Gill informed Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, Gill said Kumar obtained Australian citizenship and represented the country in the Beijing Olympics.

Besides Kumar, three wrestlers, including another sportsman with the named Sandeep Kumar, are in the Australian squad and may participate in the Delhi Commonwealth Games in October.

"Lot of people from various parts of India are migrating for economic reasons to Australia," he said and denied that any Indian wrestler who won gold medal for the country in a Moscow wrestling event in 2000 had migrated to Australia.

"The Wrestling Federation of India had not sent any team to Moscow for wrestling even during the year 2000," he said.

Not just wrestlers but other sportsmen too were migrating to other countries for economic reasons, he said pointing to Jeetan Patel being part of New Zealand's cricket team.