Kolkata : India despite performing well in Cricket has been lagging behind in many global Sports like Tennis, Football, Baseball and so on. As a result, it has made Sports Ministry to rethink allowing OCIs to play such sports. Besides, this, BCCI has also opened up on adapting “2-3” Olympic Sports and facilitate training centers.
A Sports Ministry source told The Indian Express that corporate houses, PSUs and the BCCI are interested in funding some of the Olympic training centres dedicated to one sport each.
“The ministry is looking to create Olympic centres for every sport where it will identify 100 to 200 talented athletes across the nation and train them across different age groups for this Olympic cycle and the next Olympic cycle,” the source said.
“Today, there was a meeting of the sports minister with 58 corporates. They expressed their interest towards such an initiative. The likes of the BCCI are ready to take care of all the expenses of two or three sports,” the source added.
As per the source, BCCI vice president Rajiv Shukla expressed interests in adapting training centers, with no costs incurred by Indian government.
“BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla has expressed interest in developing Olympic training centres with no cost to the government. There are sports like baseball which are similar to cricket and the BCCI can do great work there”, the source said.
BCCI has also supported India at Olympics in past, providing training centers at NCA and provided financial support, like, giving Rs 8.5 crore to the IOA for the preparations in Paris Olympics 2024.
India has 23 National Centres of Excellence operated by the Sports Authority of India (SAI). However, only three of them are dedicated to one sport — Rohtak for boxing, Delhi for swimming and Delhi for shooting.
BCCI had also given Rs 4 crore in cash prize to medal winners of the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, including one crore to gold medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.
However, it would be the first time that the Board gets involved in shaping talent if the modalities work out.
A senior BCCI office-bearer did not dwell on the details of Thursday’s meeting with Mandaviya, merely saying that, “things would be communicated if anything crystallises.”
Support of BCCI at such crucial moment for other Indian sports where they’re struggling is need of the hour.
