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The annual GHMC summer camp looks to tap potential players at the grassroot level
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Photo: A. Muralitharan
Nourishing talent Summer is the time for sports camps
In the last few weeks, Hyderabad has had a surfeit of high-profile cricket. First it was the ICL tournament where some of the world’s top players provided a good tournament for cricket lovers of the twin cities. Now it is the IPL hogging the li
melight. Again it is high-quality action with the focus on some of the best known players in world cricket who are pitting their skills against each other.
But amidst all this glamour it is important to remember that the crucial sport continues to be neglected at the grass root level throughout India. The annual sports camp conducted by the GHMC is an exception to the rule. The affordable camp can help spot and nourish bright talent.
No aspiring cricketer becomes a Sachin Tendulkar or a Sourav Ganguly easily.
The world’s best sportspersons have been non-entities at one time, playing for their clubs, schools and even neighbourhood teams. And even now, perhaps, some potential greats are labouring away unnoticed in some far corner of the city. Whether they will eventually fulfil their potential will depend a great deal upon the facilities and encouragement they receive during the next few years.
Perhaps a future Azharuddin or a future Laxman is now playing on dusty and small grounds, under deplorable conditions on pebble strewn pitches and potholed fields.
Very few sponsors look at this level of the sport and very little media publicity is given to these budding players. No thought is given to the discouraging conditions that exist at the lower levels in Indian sports.
If the country is to continue to produce great players, it is imperative to focus on the junior and sub junior levels and provide children an opportunity to develop and display their talent.
One has to look at the schemes for juniors in football clubs in Europe to realise how much effort and money goes into spotting and developing talent from the lower rungs.
Thankfully, in Hyderabad, the GHMC which organises annual sports camps where young children from various parts of the city get to learn the basics and develop an abiding love for their chosen sport.
Every year the GHMC goes through one of the most widely attended sports coaching schemes, unequalled anywhere in the state and perhaps even in the entire country.
This year too the GHMC will conduct coaching camps in 51 different sports at about 1000 playgrounds spread throughout the twin cities.
No less than 1.25 lakh children between the ages of six to sixteen are expected to attend these month long camps.
The camps are affordable. The registration fee for cricket, tennis and badminton is Rs. 50 only while for other sports the fee is Rs. 10. Over the years, some of the state’s be st sportspersons have made a humble beginning in these camps and going by the laudable efforts being made by GHMC, the trend may continue in future also.
ABHIJIT SEN GUPTA
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