The Hindu : Sport / Football : Gill pitches for revival of football

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 24, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Football

Gill pitches for revival of football

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: “Football is a people’s game, it is a world sport,” said the Union Sports Minister, Dr. M.S. Gill, at the inauguration of a swimming pool at the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Eastern Centre, here on Friday, on the 112th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Dr. Gill stressed the need to strengthen the infrastructure for the sport to develop.

In presence of Badru Banerjee, captain of the Indian football team at the 1956 Olympics, he said, “India once played in the semifinals of an Olympic Games and now is ranked 140, 150 or nowhere. We must get back to that old level of eminence.”

Encouragement needed

Dr. Gill said the new swimming pool of international standard would give a fillip to aquatics in Bengal. He also called for encouragement of disciplines like volleyball, basketball and athletics.

Dr. Gill called for support from corporate houses. “The money that is being spent on sport by the big industrial houses is insufficient, ” he said.

He further said he had revived the pension scheme for former sportspersons and named Niranjan Das, a wrestler who participated in the 1952 Olympics, Gorachand Sil, member of the water polo team in the 1948 Olympics, and Bani Ghosh, a National-level cyclist, as beneficiaries of the scheme.

Pension scheme

“Previously, the pension scheme was only for three years. Now it will be life-long,” he said.

The Union sports minister also said the work on various projects for the 2010 Commonwealth Games was on course and all the pending work would be completed well in time.

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

Sport