The art of managing sports

Mumbai: It takes just six grams of gold to lift the worth of a nation, says the tagline of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), a non-profit company, which works with an aim of getting some individual gold medals at the Olympics for the country.

OGQ, which has former Indian hockey team skipper Viren Rasquinha as the chief operating officer, is heading in the right direction for a bright future of sporting India.

Rasquinha, who took retirement from the game two years ago to pursue MBA, says he is glad to be a part of OGQ. “I had to quit hockey because I wanted to pursue MBA. After two years, I am glad that I got an opportunity to serve Indian sports through OGQ,” said Rasquinha, while talking to DNA during his visit to the city on Saturday.

He also said that his qualification may have fetched him a job in some corporate office, working for OGQ gives him a different satisfaction. “I derive a lot of satisfaction by working with OGQ, as it just not gives me a chance to serve the Indian sport, but I am also learning technicalities of various individual sports,” he said.

He also said that with OGQ, he not just wants to do nurture the players, but also guide them. “I have been a sportsman, so I know what difficulties a player faces. There is a need to guide the players in a way, so that they don’t make the same mistakes, which we made,” said Rasquinha.

When asked about the decision of the selection committee to drop the senior players like Sandeep Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh from the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup squad, he said that he cannot comment on the issue, as the selectors know things better. “I don’t think I should speak on that as the selectors know the requirement better than I do,” he said.