Corporate support heartening, says Verma

Sports Authority of India Director General Desh Deepak Verma on Sunday welcomed the decision of corporate houses to support a host of sporting disciplines in India, saying such a move would play a huge role in lifting the morale of the cash-strapped bodies.

“In India, until now, corporate houses were only associated with cricket and a few other games,” said Verma on the sidelines of a function to felicitate the Indian hockey team that won the Asian Champions Trophy. “Because of this achievement (ACT victory) a lot of interest has been generated amongst the corporate houses in hockey.

“We (SAI) are planning to allow the corporate houses to adopt several other games as well so that the game is promoted through them. This will reduce the burden on the government. We are yet to formalise a corporate house for hockey. Although a few have already come forward, they have sought some more time -- probably until we win the next medal or another strong performance.

“Currently, corporate houses have already come forward to support tennis and basketball. The most important thing is to channelise the support so that all of them get equal treatment. Obviously, the first priority would be hockey and disciplines with good success rates. However, at the same time lesser-known sports would not be neglected,” added Verma, who on behalf of the Sports Ministry gave away a cheque of Rs 1.5 lakh to each of the victorious 18 members.

Verma, who held a meeting with SAI regional director SS Roy in the morning, said one of the key decisions taken was that every foreign coach would have to impart his knowledge to the junior team and not just remain glued to the senior team. “Generally, the foreign coaches would just stay focused with the senior side. However, from now on, they would have to actively participate in the development of the junior and sub-junior sides. This will also help the Indian coaches and they would work in tandem with the foreigners. The start has been made with hockey and would happen with others sports as well.”

Hockey coach Michael Nobbs had stressed the need for a permanent hockey training centre in Bangalore and Verma revealed that while a decision on that is yet to be taken, SAI will set up research and development centres in the coming future.“The R&D centre for hockey -- at the Dhyan Chand stadium in New Delhi -- will look at  things like what other countries are doing, what their training methods are, their support systems etc. They will then recommend steps that can be implemented here. Swimming will have its R&D centre at the Talkatora stadium.”

KOA honour

The Karnataka Olympic Association felicitated the four Karnataka players of the ACT team -- VR Raghunath, SV Sunil, Bharat Chetri and Ignace Tirkey -- and presented them Rs 15,000 each.