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Penny power for producing champions

Stan Rayan

Tariq hopes to rope in 50 to 80 corporate members initially

KOCHI: “He has got some fresh ideas…you should listen to him,” said S. Muralidharan, the Kerala Badminton Association Secretary, the other day, virtually introducing the new Ernakulam badminton Secretary Tariq Mohammed to your correspondent.

Tariq looks young and lively, and he does seem to have the key to give badminton a big boost in the State.

He has just begun a Badminton Promotion Initiative which plans to launch a series of State-level tournaments and, through them, take the game to a new high in Kerala.

For years, finance — or the lack of it — has been the bane of sport in our country. But Tariq's new initiative, which coaxes badminton lovers in Kochi to contribute in a small way for the game's promotion, banking on the social obligation theme, has had a very encouraging start.

The Ernakulam District Championship, which began at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium on Wednesday, is the first event the BPI has bankrolled, joining hands with the Ernakulam District (Shuttle) Badminton Association.

“The championship's complete expenses — which includes Rs. 25,000 for the shuttles — are borne by the BPI. And we will give away the entire money collected from entry fee as prize money, which will be around Rs. 25,000,” said Tariq, a systems analyst and businessman who is also BPI's Coordinator.

Simple scheme

The BPI scheme appears very simple and contributions are not big but, collectively, it has the power to push badminton to produce many new champions. Corporate members contribute just Rs. 5,000 every year in the BPI scheme of things while individuals chip in Rs. 1,500 and institutions like schools Rs. 3,000.

“We have a very strong pool of players at the Regional Sports Centre here — nearly 400 people playing badminton, a good number of them are well off; some of them even join together to help children who cannot afford equipment and other things,” said Tariq. “If only 200 of them contribute in the corporate scheme, we will have Rs. 10 lakh. That will help us bid for and conduct six or seven State-ranking tournaments every year.”

Tariq hopes to rope in some 50 to 80 corporate members in the first stage. Within just a month of the start, he got 15 members which took care of the Ernakulam championship.

Lack of tournaments

“I thought of this idea about a year ago when I was discussing the state of badminton with S.A.S. Navas (former Regional Sports Centre Secretary). Karnataka organises about 10 to 12 State-ranking tournaments every year while Andhra Pradesh has many more…but in Kerala we just have about two or three. We wanted to change this,” explained Tariq. “But the scheme came into shape only a month ago.”

The BPI has the City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham as its patron and the scheme is expected to finalise a 11-member committee.

“This will be a wholly independent committee, a separate charitable society…a transparent body, one hundred per cent for sports promotion,” said Tariq.

The Regional Sports Centre, according to its Secretary Sunil Mathai, has also promised to do its bit to promote the game by offering its many courts for State tournaments for free.

The BPI has made a start in Ernakulam and Tariq feels that similar schemes could be started in other districts, especially in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram.

“If we have more State-ranking tournaments, it will mean a more transparent system of selecting players for major championships,” said K.A. Aneesh, a former Kerala and Karnataka men's champion. “It will make the game better.”

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