Guwahati, March 29: The Dispur-appointed National Games Secretariat has roped in four coaches to train Assam players for the 33rd National Games, slated for November.

The quartet, selected more than a year ago to augment the state?s Games preparation, will join duty on April 1.

?The hurdles to their appointment were cleared at a meeting of the coaching committee of the directorate of sports here last night. Robin Bordoloi, adviser (sports) to the chief minister, commissioner of sports Pradip Hazarika, director of sports Dhruba Hazarika, Sports Authority of India (SAI) director in-charge Subhash Basumatary and Pulak Goswami were present at the meeting,? a source in the Games Secretariat said.

The appointments were under wraps for over a year because of the ban on fresh recruitment by the state government. Though the ban has not been lifted, the coaches could be accommodated in the Games Secretariat because it is a non-governmental organisation.

The four coaches will take care of the state?s probables in rowing, canoeing and kayaking and women?s boxing.

The coaching committee has also pledged to appoint 12 more coaches. Coaches for 15 disciplines ? like archery, cycling, judo, hockey, weightlifting, wrestling, taekwondo, kabaddi, kho-kho and shooting, have been given priority because competent trainers were not available in the state.

Basumatary of SAI, Guwahati centre, has volunteered to provide coaches for taekwondo (Dwipen Barman), shooting and athletics (Uttam Handique). It will depute coaches to train kabaddi and kho-kho players, too.

The directorate of sports and the Assam Kho-Kho Association had already asked SAI to depute Bangalore-based coach S. Prakash to Assam for the Games.

The directorate will provide food, accommodation and travel expenses to SAI coaches, while the others will get a consolidated salary of Rs 5,300 per month.

The directorate has filled up vacancies in badminton, table tennis and swimming by appointing three coaches.

The meeting also urged the Assam Olympic Association to direct its defaulting units to submit utilisation details of grants allocated to them during the first phase of the Games training programme. ?The details were required to release funds for the second phase of coaching, although over Rs 5.7 lakh have been already been released. In the first phase, Rs 10.29 lakh was distributed among 29 associations,? a source said.