The Hindu : Sport : Ashwini Nachappa becomes HISA founder member

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 07, 2005

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

Ashwini Nachappa becomes HISA founder member

Special Correspondent

OUTSTANDING ATHLETES: Kapil Dev and Ashwini Nachappa at a press meet in Bangalore on Wednesday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: Former National athlete, Ashwini Nachappa was formally inducted as founder member of the Hero Indian Sports Academy (HISA), which is scheduled to hold its award function at the Palace grounds here on Saturday.

Kapil Dev, the chairman of HISA, announcing the induction of Ashwini, said: "we are privileged to have Ashwini Nachappa on the board and she, I am sure, with her vast experience, would give us a different perspective to our task, which is to recognise and honouring the sporting excellence in the country".

Kapil Dev also stressed on the need to strengthen disciplines other than cricket. "Though cricket has made me what I am today, I strongly feel other sports should get their share of limelight and only through an overall development of all sports in the country, we can make India a really sporting nation," said Kapil Dev. He made a special mention of the media role and urged that media should provide more display to other sports, instead of giving all hype to cricket.

HISA goals

Kapil Dev said that HISA had achieved some of the goals that it had set during the past three years. "We have a few more in the pipeline, like having former sportsmen to set and run academies," said Kapil Dev. He also thanked the Hero Group for its consistent support to HISA's endeavour and urged the government to include sportspersons in the decision making process on sports and enhance budgetary allocation for sports.

Ashwini Nachappa, said that she was proud to become a HISA member and that she would utilise the opportunity to serve the Indian sports. Ashwini also called for greater role for sports in the curriculum of educational institutions in the country.

PTI adds:

Former India captain Kapil Dev said he would never accept an offer to coach a foreign team and if ever he wants to do that job, it will only be for his home country.

The legendary all-rounder said he had never ever aspired to coach a foreign team.

``If I ever want to do (coaching), I will only do it for my country,'' Kapil Dev said. ``I am a passionate person. I feel that way. I am not saying that those who are serving other countries are not passionate. Every individual is different''.

On Ganguly

On Sourav Ganguly's poor run with the bat, he said the Indian captain should be given some more time to deliver.

``Give him time. It will be unfair if we start raising doubts about his work. Give him three months (or) six months. At the moment, I will like to support him. The entire Board has supported him. We should support him. Result (Ganguly coming good with the bat or not) is the best answer''.

Asked about the new ICC rules regarding one-day internationals, he said if those were aimed at making the game more enjoyable and spectator-friendly, then it was a welcome move.

However, Kapil Dev cautioned against going in for too many experiments, saying these could kill the game.

On his take on having a bowling coach for India, he said there was nothing wrong in having one. ``BCCI is rich and does not face a dearth of funds,'' he said. ``Too many cooks can spoil the food'', he added.

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