New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India informed sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya of its willingness to adopt two to three Olympic sporting disciplines in a meeting on Thursday.
With India bidding to host the Olympics in 2036, the sports ministry is keen to build individual Centres of Excellences for separate sporting disciplines which would be backed by corporate houses of the country.
Representatives from 58 corporate houses attended the meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss sports ministry’s plans, work for which is expected to begin this year.
“Mr Rajeev Shukla, who represented the BCCI in this meeting, said that the Board is willing to adopt two to three Olympic disciplines and would leave it on the ministry to decide what those disciplines would be,” a ministry source told PTI.
“The ministry welcomes this. Our plan is to build Olympic Centres for each sport, which would train 100 to 200 of the very best in the country keeping in mind the current and the next Olympic cycle.
“There were 58 corporates in today’s meeting and all of them were keen to support this plan,” the source added.
The BCCI had earlier provided financial assistance to the National Sports Development Fund (Rs 50 crore back in 2008) and to the Indian Olympic Association (Rs 8.5 crore before Paris Olympics last year).
The BCCI also handed Rs 4 crore cash prize to Tokyo Olympics medal winners that included Rs 1 crore to Neeraj Chopra for his gold medal win in men’s javelin.
But it is the first time that the BCCI could get involved in nurturing talent of other sporting disciplines.
The OCI option
The Union government is also exploring the option of revoking the ban on Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card-holders from representing the country. Since 2008, only Indian passport-holders are permitted to don the national colours.
The move, if it materialises, could benefit football and tennis in particular as the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is keen to consider OCIs for selection.
“It is just a preliminary discussion at this point, it would take a lot of time for anything to move on this front,” the source told PTI.
“There is no harm in reconsidering because we would like the best of our talent to be able to represent us. But again, it’s a very long road.”
With India bidding to host the Olympics in 2036, the sports ministry is keen to build individual Centres of Excellences for separate sporting disciplines which would be backed by corporate houses of the country. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
