`Asian champs victory has evoked corporate interest’

The smiles, the laughter, the pats on the back and the much-needed words of encouragement were all there as the Asian Champions Trophy-winning Indian hockey team basked in the glory of the recent success at the SAI South Centre on Sunday.
The team, felicitated by SAI director general Desh Deepak Varma, also received the `1.5 lakh cash prize each from the sports ministry.

Speaking at the event, Varma said that team’s success had spurned corporates to show more interest in hockey.

“There were corporate houses that came forward only for cricket and few other sports. Because of this achievement of the Indian hockey team, lot of interest has been generated,“ said Varma. He added that some top companies had shown interest but for that to materialise, the national side needed another big title to their credit.

“Corporate support is not limited to hockey. SAI is looking for tie-ups for other sports too.

“What we are trying to do is to involve the corporate houses in promotion of several sports disciplines. We would like to do is formalize it as we don’t want to have a situation were in, all corporate houses end up supporting only one sport,“ he said.

R&D FACILITY IN DELHI

Varma said although Bengaluru had been mooted as the hockey centre for the country by chief coach Michael Nobbs, a hockey institute was coming up in New Delhi.

“We are thinking of setting up as institute for hockey, which will included facilities for R&D. We plan to collect information on how other countries operate and try them out here. We may have foreign physiologists and recovery experts.“