The Hindu : Sport : Sethi, Pillay and Usha pledge support for `Game4Change'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 11, 2005

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Sport - Sports : General

Sethi, Pillay and Usha pledge support for `Game4Change'

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10. A novelty initiated through cricket in a small Gujarat town of Halol two years ago was on Thursday included as part of the celebrations of the spirit of United Nation's declaration to observe 2005 as the year of Sports for Development and Peace.

`Cricket for Peace', an event that grew from 16-team tournament to 35 in 2004 and 65 this year, would help initiate the resolution of the UN General Assembly in India.

Besides cricket, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the National Youth Foundation (NYF) will organise other sports events across the country under the banner `Game4Change.'

At a ceremony here at Swiss Embassy, the SDC and NYF signed the ace cueist Geet Sethi, the hockey wizard Dhanraj Pillay and the track queen P.T. Usha as the ambassadors, who pledged their support and time to carry the message of peace across the country.

"Sport enthuses amazing emotions among people and we will attempt to prod the youth of this country to participate in a big way in this initiative,'' said Geet Sethi.

Pillay said that youth must play whichever sport that evokes interest in them but had a word of advise: "Play any sport but play it in all seriousness so that the country could look forward to winning medals in future Olympic Games''.

Former sprint champion, Usha, who is running a School of Athletics back home in Kerala, said that India had talent but it needed to be harnessed.

Mehboob Sheikh of Gujarat-based Jagruti Trust was overwhelmed with the kind of support his idea has received. In the atmosphere of distrust between two communities post 2002 communal riots, Sheikh introduced the idea of mixed teams — equal number of players from two religions. The idea caught up and now the tournament has grown into a massive exercise. The 2005 event opened on January 16 with final scheduled on February 16.

Among those present at the occasion were the Sports Minister, Sunil Dutt, UN Resident Coordinator, Dr. Maxine Olsen, Ambassador of Switzerland, Dominique Dreyer, SDC Country Director, Kurt Voegele and the member of Planning Commission of India, Saeda Hameed.

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