The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Jayalalithaa's sporting initiative draws praise

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 03, 2006

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Jayalalithaa's sporting initiative draws praise

Special Correspondent

Chennai: The tennis community in the State owes a debt of gratitude to the Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, for creating world class infrastructure in this metropolis. The Chief Minister's initiative and enthusiasm to promote sport, more importantly, tennis, came in for generous praise and acknowledgement at the opening ceremony of the Chennai Open 2005 on Monday.

The tributes seemed appropriate in the context of the fact that but for Ms. Jayalalithaa's personal interest in tennis this ATP event would have moved out of the city when the sponsorship of the Tata Group ended two years ago.

There was speculation that it would be shifted to Hyderabad. However, the tennis legend from this city, Vijay Amritraj, knew the best way to retain the event was to approach the sports loving Chief Minister. Vijay sought an appointment with Ms. Jayalalithaa and explained why Chennai should not lose the prestige of hosting an internationally acclaimed event.

Quite predictably, the Chief Minister immediately acknowledged the importance of this competition and agreed to find ways to keep the championship here. Without losing much time, she ensured the formation of a consortium of top notch industries, apart from the contribution from the State itself as a Platinum sponsor (Rs. one crore).

For the last two years, this consortium of banks (Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank) and industries (IOC, United India Insurance, Murugappa Group, TVS, Saint-Gobains, L & T, Chennai Petroleum and SAIL) provides the bulk of sponsorship for this multi-crore event attracting some of the finest foreign exponents of the game.

During the opening ceremony, Vijay Amritraj expressed his gratitude on behalf of the tennis fraternity to the Chief Minister. The President of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association, Narayanan, and Ravi Krishnan (IMG) endorsed Vijay Amritraj's appreciation of Ms. Jayalalithaa's contribution to sport in the State.

Mr. Narayanan announced that a part of the ticket sales would be donated to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund. Mr. Ravi Krishnan said IMG's contribution was Rs. 15.7 lakhs.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport